The Council adopted conclusions in which it
welcomed the Commission Action Plan on building a Capital Markets
Union, whilst stressing the importance of preserving momentum also
in the long-term with a concrete and ambitious agenda for
further on-going action.
The Council supported accordingly the following
priority areas:
- increasing the variety of financing sources available
for all businesses, in particular
SMEs and small mid-caps, from smaller or larger financial markets,
including high-growth potential and innovative SMEs, and building
on successful solutions for connecting them to a wider basis of
prospective investors. This should be achieved by using: (i)
market-led initiatives and self-regulation of the market; (ii)
legislative initiatives where unjustified barriers warrant an
intervention from the legislator; (iii) work streams in areas such
as: the Prospectus Directive, Venture Capital, Crowdfunding,
Private Placements, Mini Bonds, SME growth markets and SME credit
information;
- ensuring an appropriate regulatory
environment for long-term,
sustainable investment and financing of Europe's infrastructure,
including steps to attract private capital in order to realise the
targets of the Investment
Plan for Europe;
- increasing investment and choices for retail and
institutional investors within a framework of adequate investor
protection, beginning with: (i) the
publication of a Green Paper focused on retail financial services
and insurance in the last quarter of 2015; (ii) exploratory work on
the potential merits of a European framework for long-term
individual savings schemes such as third pillar personal
pensions;
- enhancing the capacity of banks to lend, in particular
to SMEs, notably through establishing
an appropriate framework to revive simple, transparent and
standardised securitisation;
- assessing the coherence, consistency and the
cumulative impact of the financial reforms on the financing
of the real economy;
- examining and dismantling unjustified cross-border
barriers to the development of capital markets for all 28 Member States, including where appropriate
in the area of clearing and settlement and other market
infrastructures, and also finding (through appropriate tax working
groups) pragmatic solutions to long-standing tax obstacles such as
double taxation linked to current withholding tax
arrangements.
The Council:
- called for a swift adoption of the Regulation
of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down common
rules on securitisation and of the Regulation
of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation
(EU) No 575/2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions
and investment firms;
- looked forward to the Commission's proposal to revise
the Prospectus
Directive to make it easier and cheaper for firms to raise
funding on public markets;
- stressed the importance of preserving financial
stability objectives of financial legislation, consumer and
investor protection and the single market, including through the
single rulebook.
The Commission is invited to:
- assess the impact of third-country
regimes, including equivalence and
mutual recognition, in current regulations on the structure of
European capital markets, the competitiveness of the European
financial industry as well as effective access to third-country
markets;
- consult the Member States with a view to
identifying business insolvency law-related barriers
to the development of a single market for capital;
- present the outcome and possible follow-up of its
study on the cross-border issues in the area of directors'
liability and disqualifications as soon as
possible;
- analyse possible barriers in other relevant areas,
such as for instance securities law.
The Council recognised the need for the European
Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) to work on strengthening supervisory
convergence, to improve the functioning of the single market for
capital. It noted the importance of the Commission's plan to
further analyse, in a White Paper, by mid-2016, the
governance and financing of the ESAs, with due account of their
European role.
Moreover, there is a need for all national authorities
to implement EU financial rules fully and consistently in
order to ensure the highest levels of conduct and integrity across
the EU capital.
Members look forward to working with the Commission to
develop a roadmap to identify existing barriers to the free
movement of capital. It invited the Commission to report, at
least every six months, in order to provide an evidence-based
assessment of the progress made in the build-up of the Capital
Markets Union including on the basis of key indicators and
evidence.