In September 2015 the European Commission adopted an Action Plan setting out a list of over 30 actions and related measures to establish a Capital Market Union (CMU) by 2019. Despite the progress that has been made to date, Europe’s capital markets remain fragmented along national lines. The risk, with issues such as Brexit and the European Parliament elections on the horizon, is that the CMU could be side-lined.
As BETTER FINANCE pointed out on multiple occasions, individual savers and investors are paramount for a well-integrated capital market: EU households are the main source for the long-term funding of the European economy. On the other hand, savers and investors would benefit from the implementation of the CMU thanks to better returns as well as more transparency, simpler and more standardised investment products and an increase in financial literacy.
The self-imposed deadline for delivering the first stage of the Action Plan is approaching as a new Commission will take office next October. The ambitious implementation of an operative CMU will need more than one year to be concluded. It is therefore important that both the next European Parliament and Commission keep in mind that much work still needs to be done.