The Capital Markets Union (CMU) is a plan of the European Commission to mobilise capital in Europe by making capital markets deeper and more integrated so that Europe relies less on banks for financing the economy. It is a key element of the Investment Plan announced by the Juncker Commission in November 2014.

In a seminar organised by the EIB Institute, Steven Maijoor, Chairman of the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA), presented the current state of play following the action plan launched by the Commission on 30 September 2015.

“More equity funding is needed”, said Steven Maijoor, detailing the CMU’s four building blocks: to create greater diversity in financing, to increase efficiency of EU capital markets, to increase attractiveness of EU for investors and to strengthen and harmonise supervision.

“Building an equity culture with robust investor protection” is essential  as well as reducing the cost of access for SMEs to the capital markets.

Click here to access the presentation.