This more balanced policy mix is an opportunity to engage in new ways of thinking and to strengthen the recovery via stronger economic coordination in Europe. The room for manoeuvre in economic policy is highly heterogeneous across European countries, and each country should use its capacity to improve the overall situation [Slide 6]. European countries have done quite a lot on their own, but now we can and must do more to coordinate demandside policies and structural reforms at the European level. To do so, I would like to make two proposals. 4/ Strengthen Investment First, we need to improve investment financing [Slide 7]. Our efforts should be put towards financing growth and innovation and towards finding the right mix between debt and equity financing solutions, while still preserving financial stability and consumer protection. In the EU, the European Commission has launched several initiatives to serve these objectives, particularly the Investment Plan and the Capital Markets Union. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Second, we need to focus on removing obstacles to investment, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects and making smarter use of new and existing financial resources. The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) drives the Investment Plan for Europe. It supports strategic investments in key areas such as infrastructure, education, research, innovation, as well as risk finance for small businesses. Through the use of limited public guarantees, it aims to foster private investments totalling EUR 315 billion in three years.
Since the beginning of 2013, Spain has experienced a decrease in its unemployment rate of some 6 percentage points and Spanish growth is nowadays one of the main drivers of the European recovery. Contrary to preconceptions, France has also demonstrated in the past its capacity to meet the challenge of economic and social reform. In the 1990s, to prepare for the introduction of the euro, France pursued a competitive disinflation policy that proved highly effective. Remember that in the late 1990s, France experienced the highest GDP growth and the weakest inflation rate among European countries, along with a significant fall in its unemployment rate. Today, French reforms are heading in the right direction, [Slide 5] in particular the tax credit for competitiveness and investment (CICE) and the Responsibility and Solidarity Pact (RSP) that enhance the competitive strength of the French economy. A policy of administrative simplification, the so-called ‘simplification shock’, and a new law to sustain economic growth and entrepreneurship (‘loi Macron’), are also being conducted in order to rebuild business confidence. However, we are not there yet and a number of reforms need to be complemented. In particular, in the labour market: hopefully renewed progress will be made with the draft law under discussion in Parliament. Finally, in the euro area, fiscal policy is now more balanced since significant adjustment has already been achieved. Structural efforts and a growth recovery have led to a reduction in deficits and to a stabilisation in the ratio of debt to GDP.