EU 'must do more' to facilitate mortgages from abroad

The EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services, and the Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuiness said apart from the obvious funding streams for infrastructure, science and research, the EU is investing more in people and ideas, and can also provide support in policy form and by providing access to the single European market Picture: Dan Linehan

The EU must do more to allow consumers to get loans or mortgages from other countries, the bloc’s Financial Services Commissioner has said.

Millions have benefitted from the single market, including air travel rights, freedom of movement, and roaming charges, Mairead McGuinness said in Cork.

She said she is often questioned as to why other member states offer better fixed rate mortgages than Ireland, and why people cannot get loans from other member states. The EU must get better at improving the benefits of the single market to allow consumers to get loans the likes of France or Germany, she said.

Cork as Ireland’s fastest growing city over the next two decades can look to Europe to help manage that unprecedented growth, she said.

Ms McGuinness, the EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services, and the Capital Markets Union, said apart from the obvious funding streams for infrastructure, science and research, the EU is investing more in people and ideas, and can also provide support in policy form and by providing access to the single European market — an economic powerhouse of 450m people.

She said the EU should be viewed as one set of rules which gives certainty to people dealing with the 27 EU member states.

She made her comments in her keynote address to the ‘EU for Cork: Unlocking Opportunities’ event in City Hall yesterday, where she referenced several projects in the region which have received EU funding over the years, including:

• €164m investment from the EU’s post-covid Recovery and Resilience Fund for the upgrade of Kent railway station;
• Some €37m in Erasmus+ grants between 2021-2023 alone;
• €16m for community-led rural development projects in the six years to 2020, including outdoor recreational spaces;
• A €3m contribution to MTU’s Cyber Innovate cyber-security programme;
• A €3.25m contribution towards the Marina Park development in the city’s south docks.

Ms McGuinness also said that Cork has performed exceptionally well in the EU’s highly competitive Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, with UCC securing three European Research Council (ERC) grants to the value of €4.75m last year — more than any other Irish higher education institution.

Ocean Wave Venture Ltd is also set to secure over €100,000 as part of a €4.6m research project which aims to establish an industrial system for harnessing tidal energy.

She also said the EU is funding trials of different technologies and policies to inform approaches to energy efficiency and social housing, it is providing funding to the Cork International Film Festival, it is funding youth services and adult literacy, and it has already funded a study to inform the relocation of the Port of Cork, freeing up a vast urban brownfield site, and funding a dozen projects to tackle climate change.