- On 19 March 2025, the European Commission (EC) issued a communication entitled "Savings and Investments Union: A Strategy to Foster Citizens' Wealth and Economic Competitiveness in the EU", setting out its strategy for expanding the range of investment opportunities for citizens and financing opportunities for companies, to boost citizens' wealth and the EU’s growth and competitiveness. This may be relevant for UK groups with presence in the EU.
- The strategy will involve both EU-wide and domestic policy measures, in particular the use of tax incentives, such as simplified tax procedures or preferential tax rates, to encourage citizens to invest their savings and, for business financing, addressing national tax provisions that incentivise debt over equity financing. On the latter, the EC referred to its earlier DEBRA (Debt-Equity Bias Reduction Allowance) proposal, which has been suspended by the EU Council since December 2022 and which the EC has attempted to revive, so far unsuccessfully, in the Savings and Investments Union (SUI) debate.
- The communication notes the EC’s intention "to remove differences in national taxation procedures creating administrative burden and barriers to cross-border investment and also support Member States' actions for this purpose”.
- Timing: the EC’s press release states that the actions proposed in the SIU strategy “will be further developed in the period ahead, in continued dialogue with stakeholders. Packages of measures will be taken in a limited range of areas, with a clear link to boosting competitiveness in the EU economy, with the most impactful actions being given priority in 2025”. The EC will issue a progress report on the SIU by the second quarter of 2027.
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