The six largest economies in the European Union agreed, on Thursday 28 May in Berlin, on six priority areas aimed at speeding up the integration of European capital markets as part of the ‘MISP’ legislative package proposed by the European Commission to reform EU market infrastructure (see EUROPE 13862/2). The finance ministers of Spain, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland notably aligned on the sensitive issue of centralised supervision, marking a break with the reluctance shown in recent years by some countries in this ‘Group of Six’ (E6).
“The goal of more Europe, a stronger Europe, a more resilient Europe is, for me, more important than clinging to national interests”, said the German minister, Lars Klingbeil, on Thursday, as quoted by the Financial Times, adding that greater “centralisation” could bring added value at European level.
“The ministers have taken a decisive step”, his Spanish counterpart, Carlos Cuerpo, said on X on Thursday evening, while the French Ministry of the Economy spoke on Friday of “a major step forward”.
In a political statement addressed to the Presidency of the EU Council, the ministers announced that they wanted “to facilitate the ongoing negotiations” in the Council and to “use the current momentum for real progress”.
“We are stepping up efforts to conclude the negotiations in the Council by the summer”, said French Minister of the Economy, Roland Lescure.
Six priority areas of work were identified in the German capital: - strengthening cross-border distribution of funds; - increasing transparency of equity markets; - strengthening market infrastructures, notably through oversight of the most significant players; - ensuring a ‘sound’ European crypto-assets market; - enabling innovative financial technologies; - updating the governance of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
Supervision. The ministers therefore agreed to transfer, under ESMA’s remit and in a “phased” manner, the supervision of central counterparties (CCPs), central securities depositories (CSDs) and trading platforms operated by pan-European market operators (PEMOs).
The ‘Group of Six’ is thus aligning itself with the European Commission’s proposal to supervise “significant” players at European level, but, referring to budgetary responsibility, it is asking the Commission to review, during the period of transfer of powers, the regulatory framework applicable to entities supervised by ESMA.
Crypto-assets. The ‘Six’ also support direct supervision by ESMA of “significant” crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) and want its role in authorisation procedures to be strengthened by providing that a negative opinion from the European authority on major risks cannot be disregarded by national supervisors.
Investment funds. The ministers support the European Commission’s objective of strengthening the cross-border distribution of funds, but are more cautious about the new supervisory mechanisms under consideration. They favour the creation of coordination colleges between national authorities and ESMA rather than a formalised system of periodic reviews of large cross-border managers.
See the statement from the six EU Member States: https://aeur.eu/f/m40 (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)