ContextSpeech in Brussels to bankers and business leaders at a European Banking Federation and BusinessEurope forum; the Eurogroup coordinates euro area economic policies and is pushing to complete the banking union.
Why it mattersIt connects banking integration to Europe's strategic spending on defence, energy and AI, arguing that savings should flow freely across borders to finance them.
- Europe must fund defence, energy, AI and infrastructure.
- Excessive dependencies limit its capacity to act.
- Savings do not move freely across the euro area.
- Deepen integration so savings fund investment anywhere in Europe.
- Keep the resilience built since the last crises.
- Let Europe finance its own strategic priorities.
Read the speech summary
1. Why growth matters
At a Brussels forum of bankers and employers on 7 October 2026, Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis argued that Europe, despite its wealth, skills, single market and large savings, is growing too slowly. Faster growth means better jobs, wages and public services, and lets firms invest in machines, digital tools and AI. It has also become a matter of geopolitical strength, as Europe must fund defence, energy security, critical technologies and infrastructure.
2. The financing gap
With an ageing workforce, growth must come from productivity and therefore investment, estimated by Mario Draghi at around EUR 800 billion more each year. Public budgets cannot cover it. The paradox, he says, is that Europe has ample savings but a financial system still split along national lines, so many firms cannot raise capital to grow. The Savings and Investments Union aims to link those savings to productive firms across the single market.
3. Banks and the unfinished Banking Union
Because banks still provide about 70% of business finance and are vital for small firms, he says the savings union cannot succeed without completing the Banking Union. European banks are now sound and helped absorb recent crises, but the market remains national: barely 16% of loans to euro-area companies are made across borders, and rules still trap capital and liquidity inside countries. He describes this fragmentation as a hidden levy on scale, investment and innovation, made more costly by technology: large US banks spend more than twice as much on IT relative to assets.
4. Three priorities and the political challenge
He calls for integration (fewer barriers to cross-border mergers and to moving capital within groups), trust (crisis management, funding for banks being wound down and a step forward on a common deposit guarantee) and competitiveness (simpler, more proportionate and consistent supervision rather than looser rules), while keeping room for strong regional banks serving small firms. The economics are well understood, he says; the obstacle is political, as each country guards its own safeguards. He sees the Eurogroup's role as building trust and compromise, and stresses urgency because investment and AI decisions are being made now.