Conference summary: Banking on Europe – Holding pan European public borrowers to account

Conference Summary
European-level public institutions have long been able to borrow on capital markets. However, their borrowing capacities have increased rapidly over the past fifteen years. Over that period, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) was created, the European Investment Bank (EIB) scaled up its operations, and after 2020 the European Commission became a large-scale issuer under the SURE and Next Generation EU programmes. The conference ‘Banking on Europe – Holding Pan-European Public Borrowers to Account’, which was held at the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on 15 March 2024, addressed the challenges for ensuring that these institutions are sufficiently transparent and held accountable. (cont.)