Overview
- Addressing lawmakers ahead of an EU summit next week, German chancellor Friedrich Merz urged unifying EU capital markets and harmonising stock exchange regulations to speed financing.
- He argued Europe needs a larger, deeper capital market so companies like BioNTech do not feel compelled to list in New York, noting Birkenstock and Linde also chose New York over Frankfurt.
- Euronext CEO Stéphane Boujnah said the group is ready to advance market consolidation to create a deeper pool of liquidity for European company growth.
- Euronext operates exchanges in Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon and Oslo and is eyeing Athens, though past merger efforts with Deutsche Börse have failed.
- Merz warned that without stronger capital markets the EU risks economic and technological slippage relative to the United States and China.