With only slowly recovering economic growth and structurally high interest costs, Hungary needs sustained fiscal discipline to ensure budget deficits narrow gradually and debt-to-GDP stabilises before and after parliamentary elections due next spring.

GlobalCapital’s call for nominations for its European Securitization Awards 2026 is now live.

Aligning the tracks of Europe’s digital finance landscape will reinforce the euro’s global role, increase resilience against economic fragmentation and enhance European autonomy. Slow movers among European banks could face revenue and funding pressures.

The European Commission (EC) has prepared an innovative if complex plan to mobilise seized Russian assets to fund Ukraine. This initiative is critical given the absence of any credible alternative for providing sustained financial support.

Less dilution of equity capital certificates issued at a discount to book value would support savings banks’ credit profiles, but maintaining the cap on ECC holder representation on supervisory boards could have negative implications.

Spain needs to encourage more investment in its electricity grid and storage capacity by allowing utilities to earn higher returns while ensuring growing volumes of renewable energy do not distort market pricing.

Slovakia’s government is continuing efforts to reduce the budget deficit despite sluggish growth but the risk of missing targets amid worsening fiscal fatigue is rising. Use of temporary measures raises doubts over the durability of the adjustments.

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium need far more investment to modernise their electricity transmission grids through 2034 than southern European countries, hence the importance of having secured most of the EUR 200bn-plus in required funding.

Poland’s structurally embedded spending increases and wider budget deficits highlight its fiscal vulnerabilities as institutional gridlock hampers any durable adjustment. Yet resilient growth and EU financial support are containing debt-servicing costs.

Almost EUR 1.9bn has been repaid from 13 securitised CRE loans in 2025. This is below EUR 7.1bn of issuance, but the decrease in delinquent loans from 37% in 2024 to 21% offers some comfort around the performance and fundamentals of underlying properties.