On competitiveness, President Metsola said: “We need to resist the temptation to fall back on what is comfortable simply because the next steps seem too difficult.” She added that this applies to simplification at all levels, including in fields such as financial services. She also underlined that “we need to be ready to think differently and come up with out of the box solutions, while respecting the European Parliament’s prerogatives.” Metsola called for urgent action on Europe’s Savings and Investments Union and “revising regulatory requirements that are no longer driving investment the way they should”. She stressed that for Members of the European Parliament, “competitiveness today is as much about security as it is about growth”, and that “Europe needs the economic force that commands the role we must play”.

Referring to the ‘One Europe, One Market’, President Metsola called for “the full involvement of the European Parliament” and stressed…