Today, EuropeanIssuers, representing publicly quoted companies across Europe, presented its vision for the next Commission term. Its Chairman, Mr Luc Vansteenkiste declares: “The vision is the result of an in-depth exercise which presents a number of objectives and recommendations for the institutions to strengthen the competitiveness of our industry. We can achieve this through a simplification of the regulatory environment in which companies operate, and a more proportionate approach. Our goal is to support the Commission’s agenda with these recommendations. “
In its vision, EuropeanIssuers stresses that in the current context, companies refrain from remaining listed or entering EU public markets. There is a need in our industry for a diversification of financial sources, a performing and well-established Capital Markets Union (CMU) and a tax framework to ensure that financial markets provide the necessary financing for growth and innovation. The regulatory framework should attract companies to capital markets, retain existing ones and channel more funds towards capital markets. The issuers also call for the integration of competitiveness in the assessment of the sustainability requirements. They support the Commission’s commitment to work towards more competitive and innovative capital markets, while aiming at creating a sustainable economy. Moreover, in some fields, instead of developing new legislation, the vision proposes to refer to good practices that already exist within Member States. Florence Bindelle, Secretary General says: “We believe that soft law is generally more effective than hard law and that codes of conduct and best practices should be favoured.”
The vision also mentions the importance of recognising the diverse nature of companies on these markets and ensuring that the rules applying to smaller companies are appropriate for their size. Finally, it proposes to develop a harmonised and simplified EU tax system.
