Finance ministers from the EU’s six biggest economies (E6) have agreed a common position on a European Commission proposal for joint capital markets supervision, Germany’s finance ministry said on Friday.
The push for financial market players to be supervised at a European Union rather than national level is part of a bid to boost the bloc’s competitiveness as it struggles with weak growth and fierce competition from the United States and China.
Supervision of significant market infrastructure will be gradually transferred to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris, the finance ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands agreed after they met in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the issue.
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“The fact that the EU’s six largest economies are prepared to leave national self-interest behind and move forward together is an important signal for the entire European Union,” German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said in a statement.
The European Commission presented its plan to better integrate EU capital markets in December.
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ESMA’s governance structure must be set up efficiently: expertise, supervisory and market experience, and geographical balance should play a decisive role, the ministers agreed in a paper seen by Reuters on Friday.