EU Capital Markets Union

EU Commission seeks to have a more effective Capital Markets Union

On 18 February 2015, the EU Commission issued a consultation paper entitled "Building a Capital Markets Union". The paper can be accessed via this link. In the paper, the Commission states that its priority objective is to encourage and facilitate economic growth and jobs. A key aspect to this is to ensure that funding is readily available to European companies and that there is investment in infrastructure.

The Commission acknowledges that funding sources for European businesses (particularly small and medium sized businesses – SMEs) remains too costly and narrow which is reflected in the fact that businesses are heavily reliant on banks as their primary source of funding. The Commission suggests that Europe would benefit from stronger capital markets which would provide an alternative source of funding for European businesses. This will require building a true European Capital Markets Union (CMU)