06 June 2019

EBF: Markets4Europe to push for reforms of EU financial markets for the benefit of companies and investors

A group of former political leaders and senior officials are joining forces with active chief executives from leading European companies in a campaign to push for the radical and urgent reforms required to meet the capital markets needs of companies and investors in the European Union.

Under the title of Markets4Europe, the pan-European campaign – initiated by the European Banking Federation in partnership with investors, companies and financial industry – will promote the changes needed to build a deeper, more integrated, and competitive Capital Market Union (CMU). The campaign is set to run for one year and seeks to build a pan-European political consensus around high-impact structural reforms, as part of the 2019-2024 legislative agenda, substantiated by analysis.

The political leaders guiding the campaign are:

• Vítor Constâncio, Former Vice-President of the European Central Bank and Former Governor of the Bank of Portugal
• Martina Dalic, Former Deputy Prime Minister and Former Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance, Croatia
• Enrico Letta, Former Prime Minister of Italy
• Christian Noyer, Former Vice-President of the European Central Bank and Former Governor of Banque de France
• Viviane Reding, Former Vice-President of the European Commission, Luxembourg
• Peer Steinbrück, Former Minister of Finance, Germany

Following the publication in September 2015 of its CMU Action Plan, the European Commission took various steps to establish the building blocks of an integrated capital market in the EU by 2019. However, these highly needed reforms fell short of overcoming the obstacles that the EU’s corporates and investors encounter in tapping into capital markets.

The Markets4Europe campaign will kick off with a high-level conference in Brussels on  2 October 2019. Based on the views gathered from active CEOs from all sectors involved in capital markets, Markets4Europe will outline a roadmap for reforms at the conference. A series of pan-European conferences between November 2019 and June 2020 will follow to promote these reforms throughout the EU and to build political consensus.

Press release

© EBF