Each year, more than 300 billion euros of European savings leave the continent to finance growth in the United States.

Omissions

• The Letta report (April 2024) states 'around €300 billion' — an approximation — not 'more than 300 billion' as claimed. The directional overstatement introduces a slight inaccuracy.
• The Letta report is a high-level policy document, not a primary statistical publication. Its €300 billion estimate aggregates multiple types of capital flows and is not directly traceable to a single Eurostat or ECB dataset.
• A 2026 CEPR/VoxEU analysis notes that net portfolio investment outflows from the euro area were only €71 billion in 2025 and €42 billion in 2024, suggesting the €300 billion aggregate figure encompasses far broader flows (FDI, banking, insurance, etc.) whose individual magnitudes are not publicly broken out in a single source.
• The Letta report was published over two years before this claim (session date June 2026). While the figure may still hold, no more recent official estimate was found to confirm it remains valid for 2025 or 2026.
• The claim attributes the outflow specifically to financing US growth; the Letta report states the funds go 'primarily' to the American economy but does not specify the exact US share of the €300 billion.

Sources

• SecondaryEnrico Letta — Much More Than a Market (Report to the European Council)A concerning trend is the annual diversion of around €300 billion of European families' savings from EU markets abroad, primarily to the American economy.
• SecondaryCEPR/VoxEUThe net balance of portfolio investment flows for the euro area was negative in 2025 (€‑71 billion), as in 2024 (€‑42 billion).
• SecondaryEUobserverThe figure of €300bn has become a political reference point for justifying new initiatives such as the pan-European retail savings label.