The EESC welcomes the establishment of broad economic policy guidelines for the countries of the euro area and supports the formulation of recommendations tailored to each country as well as measures to assess their implementation. However, the Committee regards the current macroeconomic policy mix as unbalanced and calls for a new growth model which takes into account the significance of demand and distributive justice. Stricter regulation of financial markets should be accompanied by a general re-think not only of expenditure, but also of tax systems. Policies should capitalise more on the fact that the negative income and employment multipliers of revenue-related measures are generally more limited than those of spending cuts. The importance for competitiveness of non–price factors is often overlooked.

The EESC welcomes the Commission's proposals as they can contribute to the various goals of the Commission, such as creating a single and integrated regulatory framework for investment firms, building stronger capital markets to promote investment, unblock existing and provide new sources of financing for companies and households, attracting investment firms to the EU after the Brexit and strengthening the Economic and Monetary Union. The EESC is pleased that SMEs are expected to be among the main beneficiaries of the Directive and the Regulation. The EESC welcomes the fact that the proposals establish the necessary norms and requirements for initial capital and existing capital, supervisory powers, publication and remuneration. These proposals could therefore contribute to risk reduction in the EU. Finally, the EESC highlights the importance to ensure the flexibility of the legal framework for investments firms.