12 March 2019

Remarks by Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis at the ECOFIN press conference

Mr Dombrovskis said Europeans need a taxonomy to offer trustworthy green financial products to institutional and retail investors alike, and the demand for that kind of products is growing very rapidly.

I will be in the Commission press room to give a detailed update on the Capital Markets Union project and once again I would like to thank the Presidency for their dedicated push in this area. 

Let me also mention that we presented Ministers with our Winter European Semester package - country reports and conclusions of our in-depth macroeconomic analysis for 13 countries. The reports give detailed assessment of economic and social challenges in each Member State. This is a first step in our dialogue with Member States, which are now preparing their national reform programmes.

Throughout the mandate this Commission has fostered national ownership of reforms. This is what this process is really about. Because ownership is what counts when it comes to delivering these reforms.

Last but not least, Finnish Finance Minister Petteri Orpo presented the initiative by Chile and Finland to create a Finance Minister Coalition for Climate Change. We warmly welcome this initiative, and I see it as complementary to our efforts. Because to deliver on the Paris Climate Agreement, we need massive investment efforts in green and sustainable projects. This implies scaling up both public and private investment.

When it comes to mobilizing private investment, last night the responsible European Parliament committees voted on our proposal to set up an EU classification or taxonomy for climate and environmentally-friendly economic activities. This draft law is crucial to unlock investment in green projects, because it creates common definitions for what is actually green.  Without this clarity, without this EU classification system, we are a bit stuck.

Full speech

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