Speech by Commissioner Albuquerque (by video message) for the EIF Financial Institutions Shareholder Group Annual Meeting

Let me start by thanking our hosts Marjut, José, and Manuel for inviting me to join you today. It's rare to have so many institutions with such a central role in Europe's investment ecosystem gathered in one room.

Diary constraints mean I am joining you from Brussels today instead of Madrid, but I was determined to take part in your discussions in some format.

Many, if not all, of you in the room will be aware of our Savings and Investments Union strategy to better integrate Europe's fragmented capital and banking markets, and to supercharge the investment ecosystem in the EU.

This strategy is highly relevant for every institution represented here today. Both public and private institutions encounter barriers that make it harder to operate across borders, mobilise investment and achieve genuine European scale. Both sides are already playing key roles to mobilise capital throughout the Union.

Today's hosts, for their part, serve as critical bridges between public policy goals and private sector's assistance in implementing those objectives. Guarantees and co-investments crowd in private institutional capital to mitigate risk and support innovative market segments.

The financial groups among you are then pivotal implementation partners for our vision of a more connected, and more competitive, European financing ecosystem. Your role will be to back the best ideas in the EU, wherever they may be, turning our shared vision into reality.

Ladies and gentlemen, when you strip the Savings and Investments Union back to its core elements, you will find a system designed to ensure that promising ideas and companies across the Union can access the financing they need at every stage and reach true scale here in Europe.

This will be one of the central tests of our strategy's success.