The EU is moving closer to centralising oversight of capital markets. Are countries right to be concerned?
EU capitals are traditionally reluctant to relinquish powers to Brussels. But recent events suggest there’s one thing they hate even more – ceding powers to Paris.
For years, EU officials have encouraged member states to hand over supervisory competences to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the bloc’s capital markets watchdog. Their efforts have largely failed, for a very simple reason: member states loathe the idea.
With one notable exception: France.
The EU’s second-largest economy is one of the bloc’s staunchest proponents of integrating the bloc’s deeply fragmented capital markets. It has also repeatedly expressed frustration at Europe’s long-stalled push to channel trillions of euros’ worth of private savings into growth-boosting investments: the main aim of the ‘Savings and Investment Union’ (SIU).
