Capital Markets Union: Progress and Next Steps

Olivier GUERSENT ** Director General, European Commission, Directorate-General for Competition – DG COMP. Contact: Olivier.Guersent@ec.europa.eu. The authors wish to acknowledge the important contributions of Paulina Dejmek-Hack and John Golden to this article.

One of European Commission President Juncker's key priorities is to build a true single market for capital – a Capital Markets Union (CMU) for all Member States – in order to strengthen Europe's economy and stimulate investment to create jobs. Despite the progress that has been made on the free movement of capital – a long-standing objective of the European Union – Europe's capital markets remain fragmented along national lines and European economies remain heavily reliant on the banking sector for their funding needs. More than half of the initial 33 initiatives have been completed by the Commission in the first year since the publication of the CMU Action Plan providing the building blocks of a CMU by 2019. However, the current economic environment necessitates stepping up the efforts. As such, a CMU Mid-Term Review will allow taking stock of what has been done, its effectiveness in addressing policy challenges, and how to build on these foundations.