Debate contributions by Gilles BOYER

Mr President, Mr President of the European Court of Auditors, Commissioner, the Court of Auditors' report illustrates the need to bring more simplification and flexibility to the next multiannual financial framework, without, of course, abandoning the requirement of transparency and traceability of every public euro spent. This is emphasised by the Court of Auditors in performance-based instruments, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Controls are mainly based on Member States, whose assessments are sometimes unreliable. We are therefore often confronted with the impossibility of measuring the concrete results of the use and therefore the effectiveness of European funds. It is on this that we will be judged collectively, here in Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, but also in the Commission. Commissioner, I believe that this is the only objective we must set ourselves for the future, with the help of the Court of Auditors.

Mr President, Commissioner, this lucid report confirms the diagnosis made in the reports by Mr Draghi and Mr Letta: the complexity and fragmentation of our tax rules is a major obstacle to the competitiveness of European businesses. We need to address this. The proposal for a Directive on the taxation of business income in Europe, BEFIT, is a first step towards simpler, fairer, more integrated taxation, without calling into question the tax sovereignty of the Member States. But we need to go further. We must, on the one hand, empower our businesses to compete on a level playing field in global competition and, on the other hand, avoid tax competition between Member States that only benefits our adversaries. Tax simplification and harmonisation can and must become the levers for a genuine Savings and Investment Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, I would like to thank our rapporteur for this report, which presents an analysis of the situation, but above all of ways of improving the real savings and investment union. The famous Draghi, Letta and Noyer reports go further and detail precisely the measures they consider urgent. These three reports are broadly approved in theory, but we are, as often, slow to take action. There are many believers in this matter and finally quite few practitioners. I am pleased, Commissioner, that the Commission has published its proposal to revise and relax the rules on securitisation. I call on our rapporteur and my colleagues to be ambitious in our work to create additional financing leverage to serve our priorities, to foster the financing conditions of the economy, especially for SMEs and for European households.

Mr President, Commissioner, Mr President of the European Court of Auditors, the discharge report confirms that the European Public Prosecutor's Office has become a key player in our anti-fraud architecture, with more than 2 000 investigations under way, EUR 19 billion of damage identified and EUR 1.5 billion already recovered. But this success also highlights the structural challenges facing the EPPO: imperfect cooperation with some Member States, saturation of justice in several countries and unequal access to national databases. That is why we call for strengthening the human, technical and budgetary resources of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. We will therefore pay particular attention to the upcoming revision of the EPPO Regulation and the PIF Directive. We believe in a strong, independent and effective European Public Prosecutor's Office. This report proves it, the tool is there. It is now up to us, the institutions and the Member States, to enable it to deploy its full strength.

Mr President, Commissioner, the reports we have - those of Mr Draghi, Mr Letta and Mr Noyer - all propose concrete measures to build a genuine Savings and Investment Union, a genuine Capital Markets Union, to finance our green and digital transitions and our European defence, but also to strengthen our strategic autonomy. However, as soon as it comes to finalising the banking union or strengthening European supervision, national resistance resurfaces and slows down progress. Many of us are therefore waiting for strong proposals from the Commission on the Savings and Investment Union, starting with the revision of the securitisation rules, with a view to creating additional funding leverage to serve our political priorities. Many of us here, Commissioner, will support these strong proposals.

Mr President, Commissioner, rapporteur, President Lagarde – thank you for your presence and for your comments – we believe that the European Central Bank must be able to react with the necessary flexibility, obviously respecting the mandate established by the Treaties, to ensure monetary stability within our Union. The principle of market neutrality therefore has its place in the monetary policy of the European Central Bank, but we must apply it intelligently and flexibly, like everything we do. The European Central Bank must be allowed to react to economic and societal changes, especially when they are systemic, as is often the case at the moment. Reality imposes itself on us. I take the example of the international agreements we have been able to conclude, such as the Basel agreement on the regulation of the banking system. When our partners in other jurisdictions decide not to apply jointly agreed global rules and create a situation of unfair competition, we need to be able to reassess our positions to ensure that our banks are still able to finance our SMEs, European households and the green and digital transitions that are so essential. All this, of course, within the framework of a secure financial system. This will be one of the challenges of this European mandate here. Our European Union has turned a lot towards itself, and rightly so, in the past. It must now look more outwards.

Madam President, Commissioner, cryptocurrencies are clearly gaining popularity. They operate outside any financial legislation and in complete anonymity. Like any instrument of speculation, they will make the fortunes of some and the misfortunes of others, without ever contributing to the real economy. But let us not forget, and this is our role, that it is above all for the public authorities to organise the circulation of currencies by adapting to new uses and to guarantee the stability and use of the euro. This is the meaning of the digital euro project, an equivalent to cash in a digital wallet, issued and guaranteed by the European Central Bank, unlike cryptocurrencies. It will be a free, secure payment method, accepted everywhere in Europe, even in areas without Internet connection and with, in some cases, a level of anonymity similar to cash. The digital euro will enable the European Union to preserve and strengthen its monetary sovereignty in an increasingly digitalised payments sector. The co-legislators must tackle this without delay, first and foremost our Parliament.