In focus: Capital Markets Union proposals - an overview

The Commission’s Action Plan on Capital Markets Union was released on 30 September. As outlined in previous editions of the Brussels Agenda, the central aims of the CMU are to bring down barriers to access to capital markets and to diversify and facilitate access to sources of investment for European businesses. The Action Plan followed the CMU Green Paper and three consultations by the Commission in February 2015. Together with the main consultation on the CMU and consultations on a review of the securitisation and prospectus frameworks, the Commission received over 700 responses, which formed the basis of the Action Plan.

As confirmed by this edition’s Viewpoint article, the Action Plan incorporates a broad range of initiatives, spanning the remainder of the Commission’s five-year term. We focus here on the key areas of interest for the Law Societies and the solicitors they represent.

The areas of particular interest are five pertinent aspects of the Commission’s recent proposals, namely its Call for Evidence on the EU regulatory framework for financial services, the revision of the Prospectus Directive, proposed amendments to the insolvency regime, key elements of the Action Plan for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and proposals on taxation.