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MILAN (Reuters) -- The European Union sought ways Saturday to marshal billions of euros into its sluggish economy without getting deeper into debt, casting the net wide to consider options from a pan-European capital market to a huge investment fund. Finance ministers from the blocs 28 countries are fleshing out a host of ideas circulating in European capitals. With interest rates already at record lows, ministers need radical steps to help growth at a time of near-record unemployment.

From Polands 700 billion ($907 billion) so-called European Fund for Investments to the European Central Banks plan to resurrect the EUs market for asset-backed securities, Europes ability to get credit flowing to small companies is central to its economic revival.

Were thinking about instruments that facilitate investments, Italys economy minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, said as he arrived for the gathering in Milan. Resources [for investments] will come mostly from the private sector but of course public-sector resources will be instrumental in leveraging them, he said.

The EUs economy, which generates about one-quarter of global output, grew by just 0.1 percent last year, and its jobless rate is almost double that of the U.S., with about 25 million people unemployed.

Investment is the new buzzword among ministers, overriding the German mantra of budget cuts. Germany is under growing pressure from partners such as France and Italy to loosen the fiscal reins and use its overflowing government coffers to ramp up public investment. But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble this week rebuffed calls for Berlin to spend more to boost the eurozone economy, which showed no growth in the second quarter as the recovery stalled.

In a speech in Milan, ECB President Mario Draghi described business investment as one of the great casualties of the financial crisis, saying it has fallen 20 percent since 2008. We will not see a sustainable recovery unless this changes, he told officials Thursday.

The incoming president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, wants a 300 billion ($410 billion) investment program to revive the European economy.

Unlike their counterparts in the U.S., European companies rely on banks to provide 80 percent of loans, but banks are reluctant to lend following the worst crisis in a generation.

In Italy, Europes fourth-largest economy, credit to companies has shrunk by more than 70 billion since mid-2011 and is still contracting, central-bank data shows.

That problem is mirrored across Europe, holding back the recovery because smaller companies provide two of every three private-sector jobs in the EU.

Originally posted here:
EU Seeks Billions Of Euros To Revive Moribund Economy