Programme

09.30 Opening

• Daniel Mareels, president of the EESC study group on the Action Plan on Sustainable Finance

Key Note Speech

• Robin Edme, Senior Policy Officer for Green, Responsible and Sustainable Finance, DGFISMA, European Commission

Round table 1 - How can the measures of the Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growthbe translated intopractice?

• Flavia Micilotta, Executive Manager, EUROSIF-European Sustainable Investment Forum
• Angel Pes, President, United NationsGlobal CompactNetwork, Spain; Member of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Committeeof theWorld Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI), Deputy Director of CaixaBank
• Mireille Martini, Senior Research and Advocacy Officer, Financial systems for sustainability, Financewatch
• María Jesús Muñoz-Torres,Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain, and responsible for the research group of the "The Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade" project (SMART)

Debate with study group members

Inspiring questions for the debate:

1. How to reorientate capital flows towards more sustainable investment?
2. What measures can be taken to counter short-termism on financial markets?
3. Where is the necessary balance between incentives to enhance sustainable investments, the financial system's stability and consumer protection?
4. What roles can standards and labels, and a "Brown Penalising Factor" or "Green Supporting Factor" play?

Round table 2 -  Looking into the future: A holistic approach for sustainable growth

• Molly Scott Cato, MEP, rapporteur for the report of the European Parliament own initiative report on sustainable finance
• Morten Clausen, Policy Officer, UNI Europa
• Dirk Schoenmaker, Senior Fellow at Bruegel;Professorof Banking and Finance, Rotterdam School of Management,Erasmus University
• Wim Mijs, CEO, EuropeanBanking Federation
• Jerome Courcier, Head of CSR at Credit Agricole group, representing the European Association of Cooperative Banks (EACB).

Debate with study group members

Inspiring questions for the debate:

1. How to make sure that sustainability is properly taken account of in financial advice and in credit ratings? Which reliable indicators can be used?
2. What role does the G-factor (corporate governance) play in ESG (Economic, Social and Governance criteria)? What measures can be taken for improvement?
3. What role can institutional investors like pension funds play? What pressure can retail investors exercise?
4. Emblematic pan-European products linked to the objectives of the European Fund for Strategic Investment -EFSI 2.0. Are a long term approach and sound foresight (beyond 5 years)assuring the greatest amount of financial returns and ESG performance compliance?Should this be stimulated by the EU? How?
5. What is the potentialof ESG Machine Learning?

13.00 End of the debate