In his political guidelines for the new EU Commission, President Juncker pledged to create a European Capital Markets Union (CMU) to increase non-bank financing of the European economy and further integrate capital markets. In this context, the EU Commission launched a public consultation in February 2015.
Frank Bold submitted a response to the consultation and prepared an accompanying paper outlining the recommendations sent to the EU Commission on the guiding principles of a proper functioning CMU.
Frank Bold has stated that financing through capital markets is not appropriate for most private companies, especially SMEs, which will continue to be primarily financed through relationship-based bank lending. Private companies are often rightly concerned about listing due to the risk of pressure from capital markets. Therefore, Frank Bold recommends clarifications to the role of investors in corporate governance and the protection of corporate purpose.
More broadly, future policy should integrate sustainability and corporate responsibility into its central priorities. We highlight necessary changes to insolvency, company and tax laws for the development of a strong, stable and equitable pan-European financial market.
Our response includes the following recommendations:
The next phase will be this summer when the EU's financial services commissioner, Jonathan Hill, will adopt an Action Plan establishing the roadmap to put in place the building blocks for CMU by 2019.
If you are interested to know more about Frank Bold's recommendations to promote sustainable financing of European companies you can read the accompanying paper to the CMU public consultation Written by Paige Morrow, head of Frank Bold Brussels Operations and responsible for the Purpose of the Corporation Project.
After three months of rushed decision-making, the European Commission presented its Omnibus Simplification Package and proposed major rollbacks to the EU’s corporate sustainability legislation, threatening to undermine Europe's leadership in sustainable business practices and ESG reporting.
With the latest leaks, it is becoming clearer and clearer that President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis are willing to sacrifice the very foundations of the EU’s ESG legislation all whilst bypassing the due legislative process.
The expert group Frank Bold, along with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, has submitted a complaint to the European Commission regarding the actions of Czech authorities in setting emission limits for the Počerady coal power plant. In August 2024, a court revoked the plant's extensive emission limits derogation, and authorities were required to immediately reflect this decision in its operating permit. However, this has not yet happened. As a result, the power plant is currently violating the legal limit for mercury emissions. The complainants are calling on the Commission to investigate whether the Czech Republic’s approach to Počerady is in breach of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED).
