Olivier Marty / Jul 2025
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By adopting the new ‘Finance Europe’ label on 5 June in Bercy, the French Ministry for Finance, a dozen EU Member States led by France and Spain have done a great service to the Savings and Investment Union (SIU). This is fitting, as the latter has been struggling for a number of years against the backdrop of technical and political divisions in the capitals. Let us not hide our pleasure here, and let us see how, just like the recent progress noted on the centralisation of financial data, this new label can be seen as a very positive concrete achievement.
A new label promoting long-term and equity investments
To remind ourselves what this is all about: in response to the massive financing needs of the European economy, particularly in the energy and digital transitions as well as in critical infrastructure, Paris and Madrid, followed by others, did not want to create a new financial product, but rather a useful benchmark to channel savings towards corporate financing. The aim is essentially to provide a clear and reliable compass for choosing long-term investments, at a time when Europe's abundant savings are too heavily weighted towards risk-free, capital-guaranteed, medium-term investments.
With ‘Finance Europe’, products allocated to the tune of 70% in Europe, mainly in equities, and with a long-term horizon (minimum 5 years) will be explicitly labelled. The absence of a public capital guarantee and accommodative taxation are also part of the new scheme’s criteria. Savers, companies and financial institutions will all benefit : some will get better returns, when they usually cannot have them, others will enjoy new financing solutions and the latter will have greater visibility on eligible products. In a broader perspective, the label will help finance European priorities.
‘Finance Europe’ has four real benefits
This new label is excellent news for four reasons. The first is obvious: the label is clearly a step in the right direction. With ‘Finance Europe’, Member States acting in a fully intergovernmental manner, outside the traditional European framework, are responding to the key challenge of redirecting European savings towards the long term and risk. A strong economy clearly cannot be satisfied with seeing less than a third of its €35 billion in savings allocated to long-term investments and 50% of this windfall placed in bank deposits or liquid and guaranteed products!
This new label is also a way of legitimising the Savings and Investment Union (SIU) project ‘from the bottom up’ by making it accessible and tangible to the general public, which remains a challenge. In the same way, it can fuel a form of financial and economic patriotism. Recent developments in the financial markets, which have seen European stock markets, the euro and European sovereigns benefit from the chaos caused by the Trump administration, are moving in this direction. As one participant at Bercy pointed out, ‘Europe must be proud of what it is’!
Thirdly, this new tool is likely to emulate stakeholders (states, companies, savers, financial institutions, regulators) so that there will gradually be more applicants (all categories combined), a possible communitarisation of the tool and a gradual convergence of the regulations governing the products concerned. By proving its success, Finance Europe will be able to replicate itself in other countries, possibly for other types of investments and best practices, particularly in the area of taxation, will be shared.
Finally, this initiative clearly shows, albeit incidentally, that ‘where there's a will, there is a way’ ; in other words that determination paves the way for solutions. While this expression may sometimes seem simplistic, it remains valid and useful in this context. In the absence of EU-wide solutions, the label shows it is possible to move forward in smaller numbers, on this issue as on others, to build momentum. Moreover, small achievements can also lead to larger ones. Extending the remit of ESMA, the European regulator, to cryptocurrencies could perhaps be next on the list.
Keep the momentum going!
Finance Europe must now live its own life as a technical label. It will be necessary to ensure that market players (banks, insurance companies, management companies) comply with the framework that governs it and to guarantee the credibility of controls carried out by national authorities or agencies, which will certify the integrity of the tool. It will also be necessary to analyse its evolution, its weak spots and the way it tangibly reduces other concrete obstacles hampering greater financial market integration. Finally, the work of the ‘Competitiveness Lab’, which has been at the source of the label, will have to be followed.
This notwithstanding, it remains clear that the elephant in the Savings and Investment Union’s room remains the issue of supervision. In this respect, the reform of ESMA’s governance as well as the progressive extension of its supervisory powers are essential. It is also worth bearing in mind that neither a label nor advantageous taxation patterns can solve the problem of poor European returns. This problem implies resolutely pursuing growth enhancing reforms ranging from the deepening of the single market to global trade opening.
This article was originally published in French for Confrontations Europe, a Paris and Brussels based think tank
