Minister for National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, participated at the third meeting of the European Competitiveness Laboratory (LAB) in Luxembourg on 9 October.

At the invitation of the Spanish and Luxembourg Ministers of Finance, Carlos Cuerpo and Gilles Roth, the EU Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union, Maria Luís Albuquerque, the European Central Bank President, Christine Lagarde, the European Stability Mechanism managing director, Pierre Gramegna, alongside the European Union finance ministers from Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain, gathered in Luxembourg on 9 October, ahead of the Eurogroup meeting, for the third meeting of the European Competitiveness Laboratory (LAB). The LAB serves as a testing ground where Member States can voluntarily experiment initiatives on a small scale to boost EU integration and competitiveness, with a view to roll them out EU-wide. Participants reviewed progress on the LAB's inaugural project, the "Finance Europe" Label that was introduced in June by France, Estonia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. The Label aims to help savers identify investment products that support EU companies. Participants shared steps taken at national level to operationalise the Label. The discussions highlighted the members' shared commitment to further advance the Savings and Investments Union and to take pragmatic steps to unlock the capital to finance the EU strategic priorities. During the meeting, ministers agreed to further explore a joint proposal to create an EU-wide securitisation platform. As a valuable complement to the EU Commission's reform of the securitisation regulatory framework, the platform would facilitate the standardisation of processes across jurisdictions, and allow the pooling of assets, making securitisation economically viable and increase financing options for European businesses.