Publications Archive

Between 4 and 12 November, the Commission candidates will have to answer questions before the European Parliament. The touchstone will be the so-called Mission Letters, in which President Ursula von der Leyen assigns tasks and portfolios to the new Commissioners until 2029. The Centre for European Policy (cep) scrutinised the candidates, departments and EU initiatives, particularly with regard to the internal market and competition. The result: many things should have been more ambitious and structured.

Too complex, too incomprehensible, too ineffective: the criticism on the transparency requirements for sustainable financial products - more precisely, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) - is unrelenting. In a study, the Centre for European Policy (cep) calls for a general overhaul - right at the start of the new legislative period.

Whether it is the digital euro or artificial intelligence (AI): The relentless digitalisation of everyday life in Europe often comes at the expense of climate protection. The Centre for European Policy (cep) has compiled evidence in two case studies on generative AI models and a potential digital euro.

In Europe, there is growing pressure from politics and business to create a smoothly functioning Capital Markets Union (CMU). While retail investors in the US invested almost half of their financial assets in securities two years ago, the proportion in the EU was only 17 per cent. The Centre for European Policy (cep) believes that the EU should increase its efforts to increase this proportion.

The European Commission wants to remove barriers so that third parties can more easily develop new products and services using customer data from financial institutions. The basis for this is a legal act for an open finance framework. The Regulation regulates the access, transfer and use of financial customer data. The Centre for European Policy (cep) has serious concerns. The Regulation is neither proportionate nor practicable.

Derivatives contracts in the EU are increasingly being cleared via central counterparties (CCPs). A large proportion of this clearing, particularly for euro-denominated derivatives contracts ("euro clearing"), is carried out by clearing houses in the UK - outside the EU since Brexit. A study by the Centre for European Policy (cep), supported by Deutsche Börse, considers efforts to relocate euro clearing to the EU to be necessary.

Whether China or the USA: digital currencies are on the rise worldwide. While the European Central Bank (ECB) has been pushing ahead with the introduction of a digital euro for years and the Commission followed suit this summer with a legal framework, the Centres for European Policy Network (cep) rejects the introduction of a European digital currency.

Bank failures, imbalances, financial crises: With improvements to the so-called Deposit Guarantee Directive, the EU Commission wants to better protect savers and strengthen confidence in the financial system. The Centre for European Policy (cep) attests that the planned reform has both good and negative approaches.

The European Commission wants to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) better access to the capital markets, in part by reducing bureaucracy. The Centre for European Policy (cep) has assessed the proposal on the so-called Listing Act as largely positive.

Google, Apple, Meta: The US, Asia and the EU are seeing an increase in so-called multiple-vote shares. These are supposed to make it more appealing for small family businesses, start-ups and founders to go public, and to protect them from the dangers of hostile takeovers. The EU wants to permit multiple-vote shares on a uniform basis, subject to certain conditions. The Centrum für Europäische Politik (cep) sees more advantages than disadvantages in this plan.