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European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Albuquerque at the European Parliament's Intergroup on Attracting Investment event "Towards a Savings and Investment Union: Are We on Track?" Brussels, 24 February 2026 Honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I want to firstly thank Isabel Benjumea and Dirk Gotink for inviting me today. With this intergroup, we certainly ha...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Commissioner Albuquerque at the European Parliament's Intergroup on Attracting Investment event "Towards a Savings and Investment Union: Are We on Track?" Brussels, 24 February 2026 Honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I want to firstly thank Isabel Benjumea and Dirk Gotink for inviting me today. With this intergroup, we certainly have the right people in the room for a discussion on the future of European competitiveness. I am encouraged by your ambitious work programme. Our goals for EU capital markets are clearly in sync. The urgency I often speak about is already truly embedded in your efforts. I was also pleased to see a specific focus on the development of the Savings and Investments Union. Today, I would like to take a look at the question you posed in your event title – ‘Towards a Savings and Investment Union: Are we on track? And I would like to look at it from all sides, as success on this initiative is our combined responsibility, I will speak about our upcoming work, and how we can work best together to achieve a successful outcome. Since last March, we have worked to bring in a series of initiatives that intend to strengthen Europe's capacity to fund its own strategic priorities and to take control of our own future. President von der Leyen made it crystal clear from the beginning of the mandate our focus must be on improving the EU's competitive position, and since then the urgency has only intensified. Two weeks ago, at their retreat in Alden Biesen, Leaders agreed to speed up work with the savings and investment union. I know that for many of you in this room, your focus extends far beyond the plumbing of financial services. You are working on the front lines of energy, industrial capacity, transport, and climate and environmental protection. These sectors are all undergoing massive transitions that require massive investments. But financial services, and specifically the efficiency of our capital markets, will in large part determine the speed of those transitions. That is why the Savings and Investments Union is recognised as a 'horizontal enabler' in the Competitiveness Compass and why this agenda is so firmly embedded in the expectations at the highest political level. Our ability to finance our own priorities is the link between political ambition and reality – and I think you all recognise and value this link. Ladies and gentlemen, integrating our capital markets is a considerable endeavour. This is a complicated technical exercise, but more than anything it requires immense political will. If we want more European integration, this must be backed up by European ambition. So, to measure if we are on track, as you questioned in the heading of this event, we need to examine both what the Commission put forward, including legislative proposals, but we also must take the temperature of the political will – admittedly this is harder to measure, but it's still worth a shot. In terms of SIU actions, we have adopted proposals from securitisation and financial literacy to better supplementary pensions and easier access to investment products and accounts for retail savers. At the core of this is our recent proposal to integrate the EU capital market, improving both how it operates, as well as how it is supervised. On top of that we are working towards the publication of our Banking Report – which will assess the competitiveness of the banking sector and determine which barriers still impede its sustainable growth. We recently published a consultation on our rules for EU venture capital and growth fund managers. We intend to reform how these key fund managers operate, focusing on ensuring that they can operate bigger funds across the Union. There are many partner firms involved in the work of this intergroup that we would like to hear from, so I would encourage you all to take a serious look at our consultation and provide us with your views. Alongside this ongoing work, our focus is now on moving towards advancing negotiations on the various initiatives – and we are still less than one year since the SIU communication was adopted. Our success in negotiations rests on three pillars: ambition, integrity, and speed. In turning the SIU into reality, we need to ensure our ambition is European, and that we can look past local interests and focus on what makes Europe competitive as a whole. When it comes to the core of the CMU – our work on market integration – we need to maintain the integrity of the package. These initiatives are interlinked, and cherry-picking elements will only weaken the final impact. Finally, we must move with speed. And this is where political will comes into the equation. Since the start of this mandate, I have made it my mission to engage directly with every Member State. By this spring, I will have visited all twenty- seven. Having already met with leaders in twenty capitals, I can tell you that the support for better- integrated capital markets is overwhelming. This support was also visible following the Leaders retreat earlier this month. Clearly, the SIU is a shared European ambition, and that gives me great cause for optimism. Equally, it has been a privilege to speak with many of you in this House, both in formal committees and through our individual exchanges. In these discussions, I have found a sincere alignment in our vision and our shared sense of urgency. I am convinced that this Parliament will be an essential ally in the months ahead as we turn this agenda into a reality. But we are all seasoned enough in European policymaking to know that the devil is in the details, and that ambition can often erode under the weight of compromise. This is the reality of our work. But I urge you, and our colleagues in the Council, to hold the line. We must maintain high standards throughout these negotiations to ensure that the final result delivers more than a technical consensus, but a meaningful breakthrough for European integration. On balance, I am encouraged by the progress of the last twelve months. We are on track, but we are also at a critical juncture. This is not the moment to ease off; not the moment to stand by partisan totems or short term gains, it is the moment to accelerate our efforts and drive this European agenda home. I want to reinforce the concept of collective responsibility. And I am looking particularly at the industry representatives in this room. You are a vital part of this engine. Your role goes far beyond responding to consultations or refining technical details. The cost benefit analysis you may have made in the past around some of the ideas we are now putting again on the table must be revisited. Look at each proposal with fresh eyes and acknowledge that the cost of inaction is rising by the day. And if you don't see the progress we need, make your voices heard. A deeper capital market benefits everyone in this room and every citizen in this Union. We must all own that responsibility. The good news is that we are not bound by the markets we inherited. Just as past decisions created today's boundaries, our decisions now can break them. This is our chance to align our Union with the realities of modern global competition. We must see this present moment for what it is - a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take a collective leap forward. This window will not stay open forever. Thank you. SPEECH/26/466
Speech Brief