A busy year ahead: what’s on the agenda for 2021?  

On 25 January 2021, Mairead McGuinness addressed the virtual meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Subcommittee on Tax Matters, to talk about DG FISMA’s agenda for 2021. Ms McGuinness began by recalling that the main objective this year is to ensure an open, strong, and resilient European economic and financial system, based on solid market infrastructures. In this context, she underlined the importance of completing the banking union and developing the capital markets union. Ms McGuinness stressed that the recovery is an opportunity to build a greener and more digital Europe. Speaking about the transition to a green economy, she highlighted the huge public and industry interest in the work being done on an EU taxonomy. Ms McGuinness spoke about digital finance, and the importance of ensuring EU consumers have plenty of choice of financial products and can benefit from digital innovation. She also highlighted the ongoing work on anti-money laundering, and the ambitious proposals in the pipeline. Finally, Ms McGuinness discussed Brexit, and, in particular, the work ahead to reach a Memorandum of Understanding on Financial Services. She underlined the fact that this is not about restoring market access rights that the UK has lost. Nor will it constrain the EU’s unilateral equivalence process.

You can read the full speech here