The European Commission has announced the adoption of its Market Integration and Supervision Package, a set of measures aimed at removing barriers to create a more integrated financial market within the European Union.
Commissioner Albuquerque outlined the package’s objectives, emphasizing the need for practical reforms to benefit citizens, companies, and Europe’s strategic autonomy. “Choosing not to act — sticking with the status quo – choosing to tolerate the barriers and fragmentation we know so well, leads only one way — to a Europe that invests too little, grows too slowly, and loses ground geopolitically and economically. That is not a path the Europeans or Europe can afford,” said Albuquerque.
The Commissioner highlighted that innovation in sectors such as cleantech, biotech, artificial intelligence, and defence requires investment on a scale that cannot be met by public budgets or traditional bank financing alone. According to Albuquerque, large-scale capital markets are necessary for businesses to access funding at lower costs and compete internationally.
Albuquerque pointed out that EU capital markets remain fragmented compared to those in the United States. The EU has over 300 trading venues, 14 Central Counterparties (CCPs), and 25 authorised Central Securities Depositories (CSDs), while the US has only two CSDs and eight CCPs. Market capitalisation in EU stock exchanges stands at 73 percent of GDP versus 270 percent in the US. The number of IPOs in the US has also been more than triple that of the EU over the past decade.
To address these challenges, the package proposes several measures:
– Enhancing passporting opportunities for Regulated Markets and Central Securities Depositories across the EU.
– Creating a ‘Pan-European Market Operator’ status allowing operation of multiple trading venues under a single licence.
– Streamlining cross-border distribution of investment funds.
– Recognising group-level synergies for European entities operating across borders.
Albuquerque stated: “We are keeping simplification and burden reduction in mind when delivering these proposals. Directives are turned into regulations, level 2 measures are streamlined, national options and discretions are limited to avoid gold-plating, the DLT pilot regime is expanded and simplified.”
The reform includes moving supervision responsibilities for significant market infrastructures and crypto-asset service providers to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). It also proposes changes to alleviate regulatory obstacles related to distributed ledger technology by amending limits on scope and scale within the DLT pilot regime.
Albuquerque stressed that integration aims to build an efficient single market for financial services benefiting all Member States: “A more integrated market has benefits for all Member States – both large and small. In fact, smaller Member States stand to gain a lot, because their firms face higher funding costs, thinner local liquidity and more limited investor bases.”
Concluding her remarks, Albuquerque called on co-legislators to support this reform: “Choosing to preserve the status quo may feel comfortable, even harmless. But in reality, the cost of inaction compounds quietly. And over time, this turns into decline. I would argue such decline is already starting, so there’s no time to waste.”
Contact information was provided for Deputy Chief Spokesperson Olof Gill (+32 2 29 65966; [email protected]) and Press Officer Saul Louis Goulding (+32 2 29 64735; [email protected]).