15 Colum. J. Eur. L. 455 (2009)
Paulina Dejmek (Dr. iur). Member of the Legal Service of the European Commission. All opinions expressed are strictly personal and the usual disclaimers apply. The article and all websites referred to reflect the situation at the end of January 2009. Major developments until mid-March 2009 have also been accounted for.
Have the Community legislators provided an appropriate regulatory response to the turmoil in the financial markets and what will the future entail in this regard?
This article provides an overview of the main legislative initiatives relating to the internal market in financial services presented by the European Commission during 2008, including the proposals in the field of banking and accounting that were directly triggered by the turmoil in the financial markets during the last months of 2008.[1]
In order to place these recent regulatory initiatives in the appropriate Community law context, the article begins with a brief overview of the basic principles underlying the Community legislation in the financial services sector, the relevant institutional framework (including the so-called Lamfalussy process), and the supervisory model currently applied in the EU. At the end, some conclusions are drawn regarding these new regulatory initiatives, followed by some reflections about the future of Community legislation in the field of financial services. Despite the possible weaknesses in the current regulatory model, this article argues that the basic foundations of the Community legislation in the field of financial services in general and the single license principle in particular are sound and have contributed to the establishment of a true internal market. Consequently, rather than only focusing on detecting possible shortcomings in the current regulatory framework, legislators at the Community and national level should direct their efforts toward the rapid development of reinforced and appropriate supervisory models. The immediate challenge for all actors involved will be to put national interests aside in order to find and promote solutions that will serve the citizens and financial markets of the Community as a whole.
[1] This article does not look at state aid measures. Regularly updated information on state aid measures is available from the website of the Directorate General for Competition. In particular, the Commission adopted guidance on bank recapitalization on October 13 and December 8, 2008. This guidance was followed by the adoption on February 25, 2009 of a Communication on the Treatment of Impaired Assets in the Community Banking Sector. See also Press Release IP/09/322, European Commission, State Aid: Commission Provides Guidance for the Treatment of Impaired Assets in the EU Banking Sector (Feb. 25, 2009).
