By Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers will on Monday discuss how to boost the international role of their euro currency to make Europe more competitive and resilient against economic pressure from the United States and China.
Below are possible actions proposed by the European Commission that the 21 ministers will discuss.
1. REMOVE INTERNAL TRADE BARRIERS in the 27-nation European Union, which are equivalent to a 44% tariff on goods and 110% tariff on services, the International Monetary Fund says.
2. INTRODUCE a single law – called THE 28TH REGIME – for companies operating across the EU, so that they all operate under the same, EU-designed set of rules, rather than 27 different national sets of corporate laws.
3. AGREE ON AN EU-WIDE BANK DEPOSIT GUARANTEE SCHEME so that savers across the EU enjoy the same protection no matter which bank they keep their money in.
4. CREATE A CAPITAL MARKETS UNION, which would allow some 10 trillion euros ($11.9 trillion) idling in bank deposits across the 27-nation bloc to be invested in promising sectors of the economy that lack capital, such as green energy, digital, defence and security, aerospace, semiconductors or biotechnology.
5. TRANSFORM the intergovernmental EURO ZONE BAILOUT FUND – named the European Stability Mechanism – into an EU institution that would also handle EU joint debt and provide a safety net for all EU countries, not just the euro zone ones.
6. ISSUE MORE JOINT EU DEBT to deepen the market for EU bonds and make euro-denominated instruments more liquid. This would make the euro a more attractive currency for large investors and as a reserve currency for central banks.
7. LAUNCH A DIGITAL EURO, which would allow Europeans to pay for online purchases with their own payment system without having to rely on U.S. companies VISA and Mastercard, which handle about two-thirds of all digital transactions in Europe.
8. DEVELOP EURO-DENOMINATED DIGITAL ASSETS, such as stablecoins and tokenised deposits. More than 90% of the stablecoin market is denominated in dollars, drawing investment to the U.S. and helping to finance debt in the U.S. rather than Europe.
9. PUSH FOR THE EURO TO BE THE INVOICE CURRENCY in payments for oil, gas, electricity, transport, raw materials and defence. Use the euro in export credit tools.
10. ENCOURAGE THE ISSUANCE OF EURO-DENOMINATED DEBT by third countries.
11. The European Central Bank could provide MORE EURO LIQUIDITY LINES TO OTHER CENTRAL BANKS and market players globally, especially those that issue debt in euros or invoice trade in euros.
($1 = 0.8432 euros)
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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