EU's six biggest economies agree on capital markets supervision

BERLIN - 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.

"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.

ACCOUNTABILITY MUST BE ENFORCED

The European Commission presented its plan to better integrate EU capital markets in December.

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.

In addition, costs must be kept under control and accountability must be enforced, the joint paper said about the ESMA.

However, the paper said that in their current form and size, German trading venues would currently not be subject to mandatory European supervision.

The other 21 EU member states still need to agree to the proposals. Germany's finance minister has said he expects the package to be adopted by the end of the year.

The E6 also agreed to strengthen the powers of EU supervisory authorities in the area of trading in crypto-assets, and to reduce barriers to cross-border funds to help company financing, according to the paper.

-Reporting by Friederike Heine,Kirsti Knolle, and Maria Martinez, Writing by Madeline Chambers, Editing by Friederike Heine, Kirsten Donovan/Reuters