Eurogroup, 16 October 2023 – Main results
Transatlantic economic dialogue
Ministers exchanged views with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States (US), Janet Yellen, on the global outlook and risks, with the aim of building a common understanding of the interconnected short- and long-run challenges in Europe and the US, and discussing economic and financial policies going forward.
“A close EU-US relationship is more important than ever to uphold our commitment to freedom, democracy and the respect of human rights. Our discussion today focused on the economic outlook and challenges for the United States and for Europe, in this highly unstable global environment. Against this background, assessing the interlinked economic challenges and the risks we are facing from the current geopolitical developments is no simple task, but we are determined and confident we can steer through this storm together.”
Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup
Future of European capital and financial markets
Following the approach agreed on by the Eurogroup in inclusive format in May, ministers welcomed market participants and heard their experiences of accessing funding and investing in European capital markets. The focus was on fast-growing European companies looking for funding to scale up and investors searching for attractive investment opportunities across Europe. The aim of the discussions was to help identify solutions for unlocking funding in our capital markets.
“Today’s engaging discussion evidenced the value of collecting first-hand experience from market participants, as it raised a number of possible solutions to improve our capital markets. These include activating more growth stage financing for EU scale-ups and developing a strong European exit market. It is also a reminder of our end goal: more private funding for EU companies to innovate, be competitive, and have the capacity to invest in the twin transition.” Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup
For this interactive session, the two guests were Zoé Fabian, who drew from her experience as managing director at Eurazeo Growth to provide the perspective of institutional investors, and Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, who gave the perspective of high-growth companies.