On 4 December 2025, the European Commission (Commission) published a legislative package on market integration in the EU. The legislative package is central to the Commission’s Savings and Investments Union (SIU) strategy, which aims to create an integrated and connected EU-wide capital market. The Commission considers that the EU financial markets
On 3 October 2025, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published its annual work programme for 2026.
Verena Ross, Chair of ESMA, said:
“A core focus in 2026 is ESMA’s ambitious, and at the same time pragmatic, approach to simplification and burden reduction. We are pursuing a holistic strategy to streamline
On 30 September 2025, the European Commission (Commission) published a Recommendation targeted at Member States on increasing the availability of savings and investment accounts (SIAs) with simplified and advantageous tax treatment (the Recommendation).
A key component of the SIU
The Recommendation outlines a strategy to encourage Member States to
On 30 September 2025, the European Commission (Commission) published a Financial Literacy Strategy Communication (the Strategy). The Strategy is one of several initiatives that form the Savings and Investments Union (SIU), which seeks to further integrate the EU’s capital markets and channel more savings towards investments thereby funding the
On 10 September 2025, the European Parliament issued a press release stating that it had adopted the text of a resolution that follows up on the Draghi report and seeks to maintain pressure towards reaching the objectives of that report. Among other things the text warns that if no further actions are taken, Europe will
The European Commission (Commission) has published its work programme for 2025. The work programme consists of a communication discussing the Commission’s main plans and priorities and is accompanied by an Annex listing new initiatives and their expected timings, as well as initiatives the Commission intends to withdraw.
The communication emphasises that the
The European Commission (Commission) has published its Competitiveness Compass (Compass). The Compass is a policy document that describes the overall Commission policy on increasing the EU’s competitiveness over the coming five-year term. The Compass comes as a response to the reports published by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, which both warned
Introduction
Following a process that took nearly six months and started with the June 2024 European Parliament elections, the new European Commission (Commission) started its five-year term on 1 December 2024. The EU institutions have spent the previous month selecting, vetting, hearing, and voting on the new College of Commissioners, which consists of
On Tuesday 17 September, Commission Present-elect Ursula von der Leyen published her long-awaited list of European Commissioner-designates and the allocation of their portfolios. The presentation of the Commissioner-designates and their responsibilities is a key step in the transition to the 2024-2029 legislative term. The process for selecting candidate Commissioners has been complex so far, as
Introduction
Whistleblowing is on the rise – both within organisations and to authorities. An increase in whistleblowing is positive: it shows employees feel able to speak up, allows issues to be escalated, investigated and where necessary remediated. However, the increase in whistleblowing also presents challenges for companies to ensure that they are dealing effectively and