Citizens' Dialogue with Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis Thursday 6 February 2020, 12:00 - 14:00 (CET)Paris, France Media evp_dombrovskis_paris.pngevp_dombrovskis_paris.pngClose SpeakersValdis DombrovskisCommissioner Practical information WhenThursday 6 February 2020, 12:00 - 14:00 (CET)WhereSciences Po Paris Sciences Po Paris, Paris, France Report What is important now is for Europe to act, to prepare for the future, to move ahead – and leadExecutive Vice-President Valdis DombrovskisOn 6 February 2020, Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis took part in a Citizens' Dialogue in Paris. The Representation of the Commission organised the dialogue together with Sciences Po (the Paris Institute of Political Studies) where the event took place.Valdis Dombrovskis outlined the policy priorities of the von der Leyen Commission: the Commission aims at putting people back at the heart of its policies. This is especially the case when tackling the environmental (European Green Deal) and digital challenges. The discussion covered a very wide range of topics from climate change to social Europe, financial stability of banks, energy independence and digitalisation.The EVP Valdis Dombrovskis explained the Commission’s work priorities: prepare Europe for the transition to a sustainable and digital future, build an economy that works for people and strengthen Europe's economic sovereignty to uphold the EU's prosperity, security and values.Q&A / Main messages:Transition to the green economy: the EU has set itself the objective to become carbon neutral by 2050. Social acceptance is crucial. This is the reason why the Commission has proposed to accompany the European Green Deal with the Just Transition Mechanism to support those regions, sectors and people, which are the most affected by the green transition.Banking Union: this is one of the lessons learnt from the economic and financial crisis. The objective is to shift from the bail-out principle (at the expense of taxpayers) to the bail-in principle: European citizens should not pay for bank failures anymore.Fiscal framework: the Commission considers reviewing EU legislation implementing the Stability and Growth Pact (without modifying the 3% and 60% targets though). This legislation helped member to improve their public finances and reduce macroeconomic imbalances. Nevertheless, rules have become too complex and a consensus needs to be reached on how to simplify them.Social Europe: under the Juncker Commission, the EU set an ambitious social agenda with its European pillar of social rights agreed in November 2017. The implementation of this social pillar is also part of the new Commission agenda. putting social rights, protection and fairness at the heart of our modern economy.Digitalisation: Europe has many talents but lot of start-ups go to scale up in Asia and in the US, which means they do not take benefit from the full potential of the EU. They still face too many cross borders obstacles. The Commission is trying to solve that problem through new initiatives for a digital single market. The same goes with digital finance: for instance crowdfunding platforms should be based on a single EU approach.
What is important now is for Europe to act, to prepare for the future, to move ahead – and leadExecutive Vice-President Valdis DombrovskisOn 6 February 2020, Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis took part in a Citizens' Dialogue in Paris. The Representation of the Commission organised the dialogue together with Sciences Po (the Paris Institute of Political Studies) where the event took place.Valdis Dombrovskis outlined the policy priorities of the von der Leyen Commission: the Commission aims at putting people back at the heart of its policies. This is especially the case when tackling the environmental (European Green Deal) and digital challenges. The discussion covered a very wide range of topics from climate change to social Europe, financial stability of banks, energy independence and digitalisation.The EVP Valdis Dombrovskis explained the Commission’s work priorities: prepare Europe for the transition to a sustainable and digital future, build an economy that works for people and strengthen Europe's economic sovereignty to uphold the EU's prosperity, security and values.Q&A / Main messages:Transition to the green economy: the EU has set itself the objective to become carbon neutral by 2050. Social acceptance is crucial. This is the reason why the Commission has proposed to accompany the European Green Deal with the Just Transition Mechanism to support those regions, sectors and people, which are the most affected by the green transition.Banking Union: this is one of the lessons learnt from the economic and financial crisis. The objective is to shift from the bail-out principle (at the expense of taxpayers) to the bail-in principle: European citizens should not pay for bank failures anymore.Fiscal framework: the Commission considers reviewing EU legislation implementing the Stability and Growth Pact (without modifying the 3% and 60% targets though). This legislation helped member to improve their public finances and reduce macroeconomic imbalances. Nevertheless, rules have become too complex and a consensus needs to be reached on how to simplify them.Social Europe: under the Juncker Commission, the EU set an ambitious social agenda with its European pillar of social rights agreed in November 2017. The implementation of this social pillar is also part of the new Commission agenda. putting social rights, protection and fairness at the heart of our modern economy.Digitalisation: Europe has many talents but lot of start-ups go to scale up in Asia and in the US, which means they do not take benefit from the full potential of the EU. They still face too many cross borders obstacles. The Commission is trying to solve that problem through new initiatives for a digital single market. The same goes with digital finance: for instance crowdfunding platforms should be based on a single EU approach.
