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You recently said for Bloomberg that the "Capital market is not well developed in Europe". What are the main drawbacks and on the other hand the potential opportunities for attracting more capital from third countries?

As banks have withdrawn from their role as the predominant source of funds for European business, we need to strengthen the role of capital markets; new bank loans to the business sector are now 40 percent lower than at the start of crisis. The need is greatest for high-growth firms which are looking to scale-up and which need risk capital. Some smaller and newer Member States are faced with a particularly important catch-up process. While it will take time to build new financial circuits and change business and investor attitudes to market-based finance, we start to see positive dynamics - notably in the growth of corporate debt markets.

The Capital Markets Union program is about developing the capital market ecosystem across all of our Member States through a mix of legislative and non-legislative actions. We are progressing well with its implementation (around half of the measures have been adopted in one year). But, given the need to sustain momentum, we will be reviewing this agenda in the next few months. Through this work we hope to make investment - including by third country investors - in European capital markets more attractive.

What are the Commission measures for the improvement of economic growth in the EU and do they include helicopter money and if so, in what form?

A key plank of European Commission efforts to boost economic growth is the Investment Plan for Europe. It is already making a significant contribution to increasing investment and raising additional finance, and the Commission is stepping up its efforts through a reinforced European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI 2.0) which proposes extending the life of EFSI and increasing the program's investment target from EUR 315 bn to at least EUR 500 bn of public and private investments by the end of 2020. This investment program will be underpinned by an EU budget guarantee of EUR 26 bn and an European Investment Bank contribution of EUR 7.5 bn.

EFSI 2.0 will also enlarge the focus to include projects that contribute to achieving the Union's ambitious goals set at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21). Energy interconnection priority projects and energy efficiency projects will be increasingly targeted. In addition, a larger share of financing will be geared towards SMEs, given the exceptional market demand for SME financing under EFSI: 40 precent of the increase of EFSI's risk-bearing capacity should be geared toward increasing access to financing for SMEs. Already now, more than 375,000 European SMEs are benefitting from the investment plan.

To support the digitalisation of European industry, the Commission package aims to mobilise EUR 23 bn from EU funds (EUR 5 bn) and private capital (EUR 18 bn) to complete the transition towards Industry 4.0. How could digital growth relaunch economic growth in Europe?

If I understand correctly, the amount you cite seems to reflect investments in public-private partnerships. However, other investments are foreseen (EUR 50 bn). In April we presented a set of measures to support and link national initiatives for the digitisation of industry and to boost investment through strategic partnerships and networks. We propose speeding up the development of common standards in priority areas such as 5G communication networks or cybersecurity, and to modernise public services. As part of these plans, we are working to set up a European cloud that will give Europe's 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology professionals a virtual environment to store, manage, analyse and re-use a big amount of research data.

Our plan to digitise European industry should mobilise over EUR 50 bn of public and private investment. While many parts of the economy have been quick to take on digital technologies and processes, European industry across sectors and regardless of company size must fully use digital opportunities if it is to be globally competitive. Traditional sectors such as construction, agro-food, textiles or steel, and SMEs are particularly lagging behind in their digital transformation. Recent studies estimate that digitisation of products and services will add more than EUR 110 bn of revenue for industry per year, in Europe, in the next five years. Companies will be able to develop new products, processes and business models that can provide improved safety and greater comfort for users. They will be able to sell personalised products at mass production cost, and they will optimise the use of energy and other resources. Digitisation can help solve issues related to the ageing society (people can stay longer at home), use less energy (for instance city lighting that only switches on when it is needed), monitor the environment, and much more.

Several EU Member States have already launched strategies to support the digitisation of industry. But a comprehensive approach at the European level is needed to avoid fragmented markets and to reap the benefits of digital evolution such as the Internet of things.

Slovenia is a small but open European economy that still lacks attractiveness for domestic or foreign investments, partly due to the under-developed capital markets. Could specialisation and a focus on digitalisation improve our prosperity in the future?

Yes indeed. Our Digital Economy and Society Index shows that Slovenian businesses are increasingly going digital; getting more and more revenue from e-commerce, using e-invoices. However, more effort needs to be made when it comes to public services - e-government can bring a lot of benefits to citizens and businesses. We can only encourage Slovenia to make the most of digital technologies, and we are committed to supporting these efforts at the EU level with our Digital Single Market strategy.

As part of this strategy we have launched initiatives to meet the increasing needs of European consumers and businesses in terms of internet connectivity and to boost e-commerce. We have proposed making parcel delivery more affordable and efficient, to protect consumers better when they buy online and to tackle unjustified geo-blocking. We will soon simplify VAT rules. Also, to be presented in the coming weeks, is the free flow of data initiative. One of the aims is to prevent unnecessary restrictions on where data is located or on data access and so encourage innovation and the data economy.

We rely on Slovenia and the other EU Member States to move forward quickly with our proposals. There is no time to waste: a fully functional Digital Single Market could contribute EUR 415 bn per year to our economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

If and when Brexit is finalised, which city or country will take the role of the City London?

From a legal point of view, the outcome of the referendum has not changed anything for the time being. The UK remains a member of the EU with all the rights and obligations of a Member State until the terms of its exit are agreed. EU law continues to apply in full to the UK, and in the UK until it is no longer a member.
The possibility of the UK leaving the EU a couple of years from now does not mean that the EU has to overhaul its perspective. We continue with our ambitious agenda to build a Capital Markets Union for the benefit of growth and jobs in Europe. Functioning capital markets are vital for the prosperity of the EU, whether it has 28 or 27 Member States.

Does the European Commission have an economic plan if Brexit leads to a "domino effect" and if yes, what are the key ingredients?

We do not speculate.

Based on the common European values, what is the competitive advantage of the EU community and its business environment that makes Europe more attractive as a place to work and invest?

Highly educated people, a strong emphasis on research and development, well-functioning infrastructure, a focus on the environment and a stable legal framework, together with an internal market of 500 million Europeans together makes Europe a good place to live, work, invest and do business.