What should be the Spanish EU presidency´s priorities to boost the competitiveness of European companies?
BusinessEurope, the European business association, has published the "Madrid Declaration, a document with recommendations to the Spanish presidency of the EU to boost the competitiveness of European companies, deepen the single market integration, and implement a genuine European industrial policy that supports the green and digital transitions, avoiding regulatory burden when setting EU policies.
BusinessEurope identifies five main priorities to be addressed during the Spanish presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023:
- The need to give regulatory breathing space to European companies as a whole, in order to gain agility and competitiveness vis-à-vis third markets, and to reduce the cost of the current regulatory tsunami (according to the document more than 5,000 pages of new regulation in the last 5 years in the EU), which is particularly difficult to deal with for SMEs and the self-employed, who make up the bulk of the business fabric.
- To undertake a comprehensive programme to deepen the integration of the single market, removing regulatory barriers to cross-border business operations and services, that are hampering the green and digital transition.
- To secure energy supply at competitive prices. The report points out that from pre-covid levels, energy prices for European companies would have risen twice as much as for example for companies in the US.
- To address the current shortage of skilled workers, which is essential to be able to carry out and be competitive in the future digital and green economy, by encouraging training and reskilling plans among companies, educational centres and public institutions, to increase R&D funding to bring it to levels similar to those of the US or China, eliminating regulatory burdens that undermine innovation and productivity.
- To open up more market opportunities internationally for European companies with a view to of trade openness, by completing pending free trade agreements, including those with Mercosur, Mexico and Chile.
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AEB, CECA y UNACC proponen medidas para aumentar la capacidad de financiación de la banca en más de 2 billones de euros en la eurozona, de los que más de 250.000 millones corresponderían a España, reforzando la inversión y la financiación de la economía.
Según Boston Consulting Group, la nueva regulación posterior a la crisis financiera global (GFC) reforzó la resiliencia del sector, pero institucionalizó un sesgo orientado a eliminar cualquier riesgo en detrimento del crecimiento económico.
Según Ramón Casilda el acuerdo UE Mercosur permitirá un ahorro arancelario de aproximadamente 4.000 millones de euros anuales, una cifra muy superior a lo esperado en los acuerdos con Canadá y Japón.
AEB, CECA and UNACC propose measures to increase banks' lending capacity by more than €2 trillion in the euro area, including over €250 billion in Spain, providing additional resources to strengthen banks and finance new investment.
Según el economista José Carlos Diez, la banca española tiene un exceso de depósitos y liquidez disponible para atender la demanda de crédito de empresas y familias, y además lo hace con los tipos más bajos de Europa, según el BCE.
According to Boston Consulting Group, regulation brought in after the GFC strengthened the financial sector’s resilience but institutionalized bias towards removing all risk over economic growth.
Según CEPS, la complejidad regulatoria y supervisora de la UE supone un freno estructural a la integración, inversión y profundidad del mercado, con costes que recaen especialmente en pequeñas empresas nuevos entrantes y modelos de negocio transfronterizos.
According to Ramón Casilda, the EU–Mercosur agreement will generate annual tariff savings of around €4 billion, which is significantly higher than the savings expected under the agreements with Canada and Japan.
Según el BCE, un sistema de pagos eficiente, seguro e integrado reforzaría el papel internacional del euro y aportaría beneficios como menores costes de financiación, menor exposición a fluctuaciones cambiarias y mayor protección frente a sanciones.
Economist José Carlos Díez notes that Spain’s banking sector has an excess of deposits and sufficient liquidity to meet the credit demand of companies and households, and does so at the lowest interest rates in Europe, according to the ECB.
Según el IEA, uno de los debates clave en la UE sobre simplificación de la regulación financiera es si incluir explícitamente la competitividad, eficiencia o crecimiento como objetivos de las autoridades regulatorias, siguiendo el modelo del Reino Unido.
According to CEPS, regulatory and supervisory complexity acts as a structural constraint on integration, investment and market depth, with costs that weigh most heavily on smaller institutions, new entrants and cross-border business models.
Según el Center for the Governance of Change de IE University, unos mercados financieros más profundos e integrados reforzarían el papel global del euro. Esto requiere, entre otros elementos, sistemas de pago resilientes e interoperables y completar la unión bancaria.
According to the ECB, an efficient, secure and integrated payment system would strengthen the international role of the euro and deliver benefits such as lower financing costs, reduced exposure to exchange rate fluctuations and greater protection against sanctions.
Alianzas banca–crédito privado: según Oliver Wyman, los ganadores serán quienes combinen la disciplina de análisis y estructuración bancaria, su capacidad de distribución y acceso a clientes, con el apetito del capital privado por riesgo ilíquido y de largo plazo.
According to the IEA one key debate in the EU on financial regulation simplification is whether to explicitly include competitiveness, efficiency or contribution to growth as objectives of the regulatory agencies, following the UK example.
According to IE University’s Center for the Governance of Change, deeper and more integrated financial markets would strengthen the euro’s global role. This requires, among other elements, resilient and interoperable payment systems and completing the banking union.
Lucrezia Reichlin (CEPR): la CBDC no es condición necesaria para la soberanía monetaria. Confundir dinero y pagos puede generar un diagnóstico equivocado y una mala asignación de esfuerzos de política económica.
Según el Global Risks Report 2026 del World Economic Forum, la confrontación geoeconómica, la desinformación y la polarización social destacan como los principales riesgos a corto plazo, mientras que los riesgos ambientales dominan el largo plazo.
Partnerships between banks and private credit: The winners will be those that combine bank underwriting discipline, distribution, and customer access with private capital’s appetite for long-dated, illiquid risk, according to Oliver Wyman.
Según el World Economic Forum, la IA ha pasado de la experimentación a integrarse en los procesos de trabajo, prometiendo fuertes incrementos de productividad, pero también planteando retos clave sobre inclusión económica, valores, confianza y resiliencia.
Lucrezia Reichlin (CEPR): A CBDC is not a prerequisite for monetary sovereignty. Confusing money with payments can risk misdiagnosing the problem and misaligning economic policy efforts.
According to the World Economic Forum´s Global Risk Report 2026, geoeconomic confrontation, mis- and disinformation and societal polarization make up the top three short-term risks, while environmental risks dominate in the long term.
According to the World Economic Forum, over the last few years AI has moved from experimentation to workflow integration, promising systemic gains in productivity while also raising critical questions around economic inclusion, values, trust and resilience.