Speech: Restoring confidence in the EU

Text of a speech by Michel Barnier, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Internal Market and Services at the European Policy Centre Annual Conference: Debate on the ‘State of the Union’, Brussels, 7 November 2013.

He argued that the reason why people lost confidence in the European Union is because the EU failed to control public debt, failed to regulate the financial sector properly and because it failed economic governance, especially of the euro.

In order to restore confidence in the EU, policies and actions have to:
- address the problems in the financial system;
- focus on economic governance of the euro area;
- focus on competitiveness and growth;
- focus on a new industrial policy for Europe; and
- focus on social cohesion in line with sustainable economic performance.