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Strategic ambitions funded by a single market. Once Member States have enshrined it into national law, it would remove administrative and legal barriers that higher education institutions are now facing when trying to put together joint degree programmes. Moreover, the European degree could in coming years be further extended to develop European programmes for specific disciplines (for example engineering, teacher education, European health professions, ICT/AI). As a new type of degree, it would certify joint educational programmes offered by a group of higher education institutions in different European countries based on common criteria and offer more opportunities to study across many universities in Europe.

 A single market to help with strategic objectives

In an era of hitherto unheard-of global challenges, the European Union and its Member States have set very ambitious goals across three key areas: the realization of the fair, green, and digital transition; the pursuit of EU enlargement to foster a larger, more resilient Europe; and the enhancement of defense capabilities to ensure peace and stability both inside European borders and internationally. Although the EU has boldly proposed a range of ambitious targets, a crucial issue still remains unresolved: the financing of these ambitions. The European Union's pledge to support Ukraine during ongoing conflicts has led Member States ramping up their financial contributions and investments; nonetheless, there is a discrepancy between the commitments announced by EU bodies and the actual funds disbursed. Concerns about its costs - and who will bear them - are far more likely to hold back the path toward a green, digital, and fair transition than ideological issues. The EU must solve this finance challenge if it is to fulfill its goals and keep its leading position on the international scene so that its ambitious agenda can be turned into real-world results.

The answer to this difficulty is a calculated approach using the capacity of the Single Market to more successfully mobilize public and private resources.

While potentially weakening the foundations of the Single Market, the EU and its Member States fell short of reaching the intended objectives in recent years. Therefore, a European strategy to financing—which consists in a mix of private and public investments—is desperately needed. Against this background, this Report advocates a fundamental change: the establishment of a Savings and Investments Union, built upon the incomplete Capital Markets Union. By achieving full integration of financial services inside the Single Market, the Savings and Investments Union is envisioned to not only retain European private savings but also to attract additional resources from abroad. The initial focus must be on mobilising private capital, a crucial step that lays the groundwork for a more inclusive and efficient financing framework. Specifically, we could see a State aid contribution mechanism whereby Member States must allocate a portion of their national funding to financing pan-European initiatives and investments, so balancing a stricter enforcement of State aid at national level and the progressive expansion of EU level funding support. Strong global competition forces the EU to increase its efforts to develop a competitive industrial strategy capable of counteracting instruments recently adopted by other global powers, such the US Inflation Reduction Act. Unlocking private investments and improving our approach to State aid will help to create the necessary political conditions to unleash another critical dimension: 

European public investments.

Although the EU still lacks the sufficient political tools to create industrial strategy tools like IRA, which is based on quick and agile tax credit schemes, the main emphasis should be on improving and refining the current framework in the short term given the lack of necessary conditions to establish similar tools. In the long term, it is crucial to address the political divisions surrounding the central fiscal capacity in order to effectively formulate new impactful industrial strategies.

A Savings and Investments Union to release the possibilities of the Single Market

Improving financial integration inside the Single Market is not only a goal in and of itself; rather, it is a necessary step towards reaching the more general EU objectives. As such, we have to work for a Savings and Investments Union inside the Single Market. The EU's share in global capital market activities - including equity issuing, total market capitalisation, and corporate bond issuing - does not match proportionately with its GDP, despite its status as one of the top economic powers in the world. This discrepancy highlights the vital need of a more integrated and strong European financial market able to channel savings towards investment needs, so enabling the full potential of the EU's economic capabilities and supporting its position as a leading global economic power.