Ľudovít Ódor
Member of the European Parliament · Renew · SK
“Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, given the current complexity of the global economic environment and heightened geopolitical uncertainty, the European Union should focus much more on policy priorities which are entirely in its hands. And the single most important among them is the single market.”
“The problem is that there is no mechanism efficient enough to channel available funds towards badly needed productive investments. Unfortunately, progress has been slow, ambitions limited and negotiations too long. We cannot blame our competitors for not doing our homework. It is time to act now. 3-0298-0000”
“Madam President, Vice-President, Commissioner, colleagues, the global digital landscape is dominated by giant companies, despite Europe's enormous consumer base. No company with a valuation over 500 billion was created from scratch in the last 50 years, and there are only two European companies in the global top 20.”
“Mr President, Commissioner, the diagnosis is clear. Europe has a lot of savings on the one hand, and the desperate need for investments on the other. And there is no functional bridge between the two sides.”
“Vážená pani predsedajúca, komisár, milí kolegovia, v minulosti boli ľudia po celom svete unesení z európskych áut. Boli synonymom pokroku, kvality, exkluzivity. Odvetvie však postupne stráca svoju konkurencieschopnosť, ohrozujú ho štátom dotované elektroautá z Číny, ako aj úplne súkromne financované modely zo Spojených štátov.”
“Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, I have three points. The first one is that the Competitiveness Compass is an important additional step after the Draghi and Letta reports. But still, it is just a compass.”
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“The problem is that there is no mechanism efficient enough to channel available funds towards badly needed productive investments. Unfortunately, progress has been slow, ambitions limited and negotiations too long. We cannot blame our competitors for not doing our homework. It is time to act now. 3-0298-0000”
“Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, given the current complexity of the global economic environment and heightened geopolitical uncertainty, the European Union should focus much more on policy priorities which are entirely in its hands. And the single most important among them is the single market. Europe can create a lot of economic momentum from internal sources simply by removing obstacles which lead to fragmentation. Goods, services and capital – all three lose a significant amount of time and money when crossing borders between Member States. There is no true European market in many important areas – fragmentation rules. The savings and investments union is especially important, since there are no shortages of savings in the EU.”
“We risk another failure if other elements are not sufficiently taken into account, like taxation, employment law or insolvency procedures. Big steps are sometimes necessary. You cannot cross a chasm in two small steps. 1-0070-0000”
“Madam President, Vice-President, Commissioner, colleagues, the global digital landscape is dominated by giant companies, despite Europe's enormous consumer base. No company with a valuation over 500 billion was created from scratch in the last 50 years, and there are only two European companies in the global top 20. Start-ups are often leaving Europe to scale up elsewhere. What does it mean? Europe failed to build a truly single market for capital. Our goal should be to allow European startups to seamlessly operate across Member States. Full harmonisation went nowhere. We need a special regime for fast-growing companies which is internationally competitive. New legal forms should be just a starting point.”
“In times of gloomy global outlooks, trade wars and protectionism, Europe needs to mobilise all its internal sources of growth. In my view, compared to the current plan, we should be even more ambitious and we should work all together. 1-0101-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, the diagnosis is clear. Europe has a lot of savings on the one hand, and the desperate need for investments on the other. And there is no functional bridge between the two sides. Deep and liquid capital markets, more risk‑taking and equity investments are absolutely necessary to harness the full potential of an economy with 450 million people. Attempts to create a capital market union have yet failed. What will be different with the new acronym SIU? Two things come to my mind. The first one is the perspective. Capital market union is a very technical term with no appeal to citizens, businesses or entrepreneurs. Savings and investments are more understandable, but focus on citizens' financial wealth and financing Europe's global competitiveness is an even better alternative. Second, urgency.”
“Vážená pani predsedajúca, komisár, milí kolegovia, v minulosti boli ľudia po celom svete unesení z európskych áut. Boli synonymom pokroku, kvality, exkluzivity. Odvetvie však postupne stráca svoju konkurencieschopnosť, ohrozujú ho štátom dotované elektroautá z Číny, ako aj úplne súkromne financované modely zo Spojených štátov. Navyše nové clá z druhej strany Atlantiku môžu uštedriť ďalšiu ranu tomuto odvetviu. Treba konať. Už včera bolo neskoro. Pre mňa sú tri kroky veľmi kľúčové. Po prvé, Európska únia bude úspešná, len ak sa medzinárodný obchod vráti od mocenských hier k zmysluplným pravidlám. Treba maximálne využiť silu trhu so 450 miliónmi ľudí na tvrdé a sebavedomé negociácie. Po druhé, treba investovať, inovovať a prepájať. Kľúčovým slovom sú siete: nabíjacie stanice, elektrické siete, siete užívateľov, autonómnych áut...”
“But then the Finance Minister comes and with him the reality check. So we are sometimes chasing too many goals without a clear idea of how to finance those, and therefore an honest debate about the EU budget, NGEU, the MFF, European public goods and Savings and Investment Unions is necessary. In other words, we need a European financial deal. 3-0290-0000”
“Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, I have three points. The first one is that the Competitiveness Compass is an important additional step after the Draghi and Letta reports. But still, it is just a compass. It shows the way forward, but without action it will not get us any closer to our main goal of regaining the competitiveness of the Union. So we need to seize the momentum and act swiftly. Second, simplification is clearly a necessary condition for improving competitiveness, but building a truly single market is absolutely vital. The strength of a market with 450 million people predisposes us to become a powerful global player. Abolishing remaining barriers will help us not to end up as breakfast for the strongest international players. And third, long wish lists are quite common also in national debates.”