A few thoughts on today's Franco-German paper on trade with China: 1) Political will is finally there: We've come a long way from the DE's 'no' to EV tariffs to this. This package, esp. the 'new instrument for decisive and systemic reaction' would have been unthinkable a year ago.

Thank you to Veronika Bondarenko, @cdgeiser.bsky.social, @james-r-green.bsky.social, Vasco Pereira da Silva, @marleneschoerner.bsky.social and Mindaugas Valiulis for speaking at the launch of 'How to revive Europe's stock market listings' in Brussels yesterday.

Competitiveness, sovereignty, innovation. I reckon we'll hear these words just a few times during Thursday's SOTEU. But how does Europe achieve them? Public equity markets can play an important role - funding European bets on new technologies and scale. Yet Europe is falling behind. 1/8 🧵

Reviving the IPO market should be part of Europe’s answer to strengthen competitiveness and sovereignty. Europe needs to complete the financing cycle: from founding, to scaling, to listing – and back to funding the companies that come next. 7/

🔹 And importantly: build a stronger IPO pipeline by helping companies scale across the Single Market – including through an ambitious EU Inc. – and by building larger late-stage growth funds. 6/

So what can Europe do? 🔹Put Europe’s savings to work through pension reform and greater retail investment. 🔹Integrate capital markets by reducing fragmentation – and explore a pan-European growth market for promising high-growth firms. 5/

Why does this matter? Smaller listings tend to attract less institutional capital, reinforcing perceptions of low liquidity in European markets. There are 2 other problems: 🔹 European equity markets remain fragmented 🔹 Too little of Europe’s €10tn of household savings is invested in equities. 4/

So what is holding Europe back? One thing stood out in our data: European companies reach public markets at too small a scale. We compared European and US IPOs between 2014 and 2025 and found that 72% of European listing issued shares with a value below €100m, compared with 49% in the US. 3/

Exits consistently rank among the top concerns of European investors. But Europe is falling behind on IPOs – a key exit route for VC-backed companies. Both the number and total value of European IPOs have fallen significantly over the past decade. 2/

🗓️ JOIN US: 17/9/26 - Brussels @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social / @delorsberlin.bsky.social / @bst-europe.bsky.social launch of 'How to revive Europe's stock market listings' Email [email protected] for info & registration