Finance Minister Edward Scicluna today called for proposals to reduce the EU-wide reliance on banks for investment.

Speaking at an Economic and Financial Affairs meeting in Milan, Prof. Scicluna said that while lack of investment was an EU-wide problem, there were big EU firms awash with money but with little appetite for investment. At the same time one found small firms with lots of ideas and energy but no finance.

In Milan, the minister also attended a two-day meeting Euro-area Finance Ministers meeting and the Asia-Europe meeting.

Euro area Finance Ministers held an exchange of views on the economic situation in the Euro area and fiscal policy.

During this session, Prof.  Scicluna said that the time for studying tradeoffs between fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, and growth was over. While rules of the Stability and Growth Pact needed to be observed, the right mix of investment, consolidation and structural reforms according to each country's circumstances were also needed.

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