Creating capital markets union priority of German EU Presidency: finance minister

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Friday that creating the capital markets union (CMU) will be among the top priorities in the economic field during Germany's six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU).

"Capital markets have a crucial role to play in the post-COVID recovery, to provide additional funding sources for our companies and to facilitate the green and digital transformations," Scholz said during a video conference of economics and finance ministers of the EU member states.

At the conference, the ministers discussed priorities to bring the CMU forward, in particular with a view to overcoming the economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and to creating solid EU-based alternatives for capital markets after Brexit.

Their discussion will feed into the preparations of a new Commission CMU action plan, which is expected to be published by the end of the year, according to a press release following the meeting.

"In our CMU action plan which we intend to present in September, we will look at topics such as SME access to finance, market infrastructure, and measures to get savers in Europe to invest more through capital markets," European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a press release on Friday.

The CMU is a flagship economic initiative of the EU that aims to deepen and integrate capital markets of the member states. According to its first action plan adopted in 2015, the CMU was previously expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

In November 2019, the European Commission called on experienced industry executives, top international experts and scholars to join the High-Level Forum on the CMU to provide support for speeding up the project.

The forum published a final report in June this year that sets out 17 recommendations aimed at removing the biggest barriers in the EU's capital markets and increase European capital markets' competitiveness.