Chancellor at EU summit

Nehammer calls for fewer bans on the economy

Nehammer in Brussels at the EU summit

(Bild: AFP)

Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) is in favor of deregulating the economy. A new way of thinking is needed in the European Union, he said in the run-up to the second EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. Nehammer also calls for European capital for the European market. 

The Federal Chancellor wants to move "away from bans and towards innovation-friendliness, research-friendliness and deregulation". A draft summit declaration by the EU heads of state and government proposes reducing reporting obligations by 25 percent. This is "a start", but we must "go further", says Nehammer. "Only if there is a free economy will there be jobs, and if there are jobs, there will be prosperity."

Nehammer against joint debt
The Chancellor spoke out clearly against joint European borrowing. "We had to do that once because of the Covid pandemic." Now we are "still paying high interest on the debt", which in turn restricts our ability to trade.

Nehammer hopes that the EU heads of state can agree on a capital markets union. Billions in European capital are currently flowing into other regions of the world and are not being invested in European companies.

Nehammer wants "fair" competition
In the planned conclusions, the chapter on the Capital Markets Union calls for the harmonization of insolvency and tax law in the EU member states. A more centralized European supervision of the financial market is also proposed. However, a number of countries have already raised concerns about this in advance.

When asked about his position on this, Nehammer said: "The important thing is that we look at how we can now strengthen the European market so that there are fair competitive conditions. In this context, we also need to look at existing free trade agreements between the EU and other regions of the world. "We are currently experiencing that the European market is often being flooded very unilaterally and companies are coming under pressure."