BRUSSELS (April 9): European Union (EU) leaders will call next week for a harmonisation of the 27-nation bloc's bankruptcy and corporate tax laws to attract more private capital for the EU shift to renewable energy and a more digital economy, a draft document showed.

Draft conclusions of a summit of EU leaders scheduled for April 17-18, seen by Reuters, also showed leaders would call for the development of a European securitisation market and for better supervision of cross-border financial market actors.

They will urge swift improvement of ways to invest in shares of companies across the EU and the creation of a simple cross-border savings product for retail investors.

Why it's important

The European Commission estimates the EU needs around €650 billion (RM3.35 trillion) of private money every year until 2030 to make the transition away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy sources, as well as creating a more digital economy.

Without the measures mentioned in the draft conclusions it will be hard for European countries to attract such amounts of cash because investors find the US market better organised, less complex and more liquid than in Europe.

Context

The EU measures are to create a Capital Markets Union in Europe, an idea that has been around for 10 years but which has made very slow progress because of vested interests and different legal traditions that make harmonising laws in the 27 EU countries difficult.