{"id":513219,"date":"2026-06-22T21:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513219\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:01:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:01:47","slug":"taoiseach-micheal-martin-says-ireland-can-secure-an-eu-capital-markets-deal-this-year-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513219\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin says Ireland can secure an EU capital markets deal this year \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland believes it can secure a deal to deepen Europe<\/a>\u2019s capital markets by the end of the year, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said, overcoming decade-old EU divisions in an attempt to mobilise trillions of euro in savings into productive investments.<\/p>\n

The so-called savings and investment union<\/a> has been pitched as a groundbreaking overhaul to integrate the EU\u2019s 27 national capital markets so Europe can try to bridge the yawning investment gap with the US and China.<\/p>\n

Martin said there was already \u201cabout 80 per cent agreement\u201d on a plan led by the EU\u2019s six largest economies and that EU countries \u201ccan get to a landing zone\u201d by the year-end. Dublin will take control of the EU\u2019s rotating presidency for the second half of 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are ways of landing this,\u201d Martin said, adding he had held detailed discussions with German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron on compromises. \u201cWe would like to do it by the end of the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The centrepiece of the savings and investment union, first pitched in 2015 as the capital markets union, is a proposal to centralise supervision of key financial entities. This would bring large stock exchanges, central counterparties and central securities depositories under the oversight of the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Agency.<\/p>\n

Brussels believes more centralised supervision would ensure even application of EU rules and spur consolidation in a highly fragmented landscape.<\/p>\n

Ireland has in the past objected to this move for fear of losing influence and control over its outsized financial sector. A majority of smaller countries also oppose shifting supervision to the EU level, fearing it would dilute their ability to attract business.<\/p>\n

But Martin said the initiative was essential if Europe wanted to improve its competitiveness, a priority for Ireland during its six-month presidency, including efforts to deepen the single market and advance energy integration.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople might have been sceptical about our historic commitment to the savings investment union, but … I agree that it has to be 27,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe there\u2019s a capacity to get a consensus on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope has to make a leap forward because competitiveness is a key issue vis-\u00e0-vis the US, vis-\u00e0-vis China,\u201d Martin said. \u201cYou can complain about the others, but if you don\u2019t have your own house in order, you really can\u2019t complain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin argued deeper capital markets were essential to help European start-ups and growing companies access funding at home. \u201cHistorically, even in Ireland, most of the SMEs and scaling companies head to the US for venture capital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His intervention comes as the EU\u2019s six biggest economies \u2013 Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands \u2013 have created an informal group to push for faster progress on capital markets integration. But Martin said it could be achieved with all 27 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is that when we joined the common market, there were huge initial challenges but it was a huge success for Ireland,\u201d Martin said, predicting that a capital markets union would be the same.<\/p>\n

He said Ireland would act as an \u201chonest broker\u201d despite its own sizeable financial services industry, arguing Dublin had a responsibility to put aside national concerns and seek a compromise among all EU countries.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the bloc had to keep its overall simplification agenda in mind in this discussion, Martin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope\u2019s got to be very conscious that it doesn\u2019t alienate other key players because of a perception that it may lead to over-regulation or too much centralised regulation. And in many ways there will be an evolution.\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland believes it can secure a deal to deepen Europe\u2019s capital markets by the end of the year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,5148,61,60,1843,144306],"class_list":["post-513219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-european-union","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-savings-and-investment-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}