TWO NOTES ON THE PROGRESS OF CAPITAL MARKETS UNION: ACTIVE APPROACH TO TECHNOLOGY AND THE NEW ACTION PLAN

The consolidation of the Capital Markets Union became a reality difficult to achieve with the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union, forcing a new scenario of cooperation for national supervisory authorities. This obstacle was compounded by the emergence of technology in the financial markets, to which there had been no uniform response among member countries to date. The digitization of finance generated not only new products, but also new company formats, which did not fit into traditional legal frameworks. From the Initial Coins Offer (ICO), to the technology-based companies commonly called FinTech, the irruption of technology went beyond the regulatory limits on which the supervisory architecture is based. In this context, the initial response of the European authority was to use soft law instruments instead of creating a concrete regulatory framework. Aware of the benefits that these new companies or services could bring to market liquidity or company financing, the European authority left it up to each Member State to anchor them. This led once again to a phase of the financial market that has now been overcome, namely that of harmonization. However, the Union of Capitals required a common European standard for all national supervisory authorities, and the convergence of supervisory practices. Two measures had been finally taken in response: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Markets in Crypto-Assets amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937, and the Second European Commission Capital Markets Union Action plan (Brussels, 24.09.2020).