Better protecting the EU’s economic and financial interests

The European Commission communication on "Strengthening the EU’s economic and financial sovereignty" is an important step to kick off a broader debate on making Europe’s economic and financial system more resilient to external actors and factors, particularly in the area of sanctions.

BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: "A more assertive approach to economic and financial sovereignty can help to better protect European companies’ economic interests. Many of them have repeatedly been put between a rock and a hard place when it comes to extraterritorial effects of third-country sanctions . While multilateral coordination and dialogue with key partners like the USA remains the preferred path, we are looking forward to exploring options that can shield European economic operators from the negative impact of uncoordinated actions. In this highly sensitive policy area, close stakeholder involvement will be key in order to design effective solutions that do not lead to additional and unwanted barriers."

BusinessEurope last year already published recommendations in a dedicated paper, which discusses a series of targeted, workable measures to help EU companies impacted by foreign sanctions regimes. Specifically, the EU Blocking Statute Regulation, the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), as well as efforts to reinforce the international role of the euro in international payments.