European Parliament’s ECON interparliamentary committee meeting
23 February 2026
Maximilian Bierbaum, New Financial’s head of research and EU director, spoke at European Parliamentary Week at the European Parliament in Brussels
European Parliamentary Week 2026: Maximilian Bierbaum, New Financial’s head of research and EU director, was delighted to speak this week at the European Parliament’s ECON interparliamentary committee meeting of MEPs and national MPs from member state parliaments across the EU to discuss the savings and investments union.
Speaking before the Committee, Max underlined the importance of discussing how we can better harmonise and integrate capital markets across the union, especially in the context of the ambitious proposal by the European Commission on market integration and supervision, whilst emphasising that this should not distract us from the important reforms that can only be done in the member states by the member states, for example on pensions, retail investment, or tax.
Max went on to highlight that in order to really make progress in developing capital markets in Europe, everyone will need to play their part: EU institutions supervisors, and policymakers from the top down to improve harmonisation – and national governments, finance ministries, politicians, and regulators from the bottom up to build capacity in capital markets at the local level.
You can watch some of Max’s remarks from the Committee meeting via the video below. And if you’re interested in learning more about New Financial’s work on UK and EU capital markets, please do get in touch at: info@newfinancial.org
If you want to watch the full session there’s also a link to the recording below the video.