The creation of a pan-European financial services market has long been a central plank of EU policy. The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP), endorsed by the heads of government of each member state at the Lisbon European Council in March 2000, emphasized its importance.
The primary markets are seen as fundamental to the creation of the single market in financial services, and the ability to provide issuers with a passport to unlock the untapped pan-European investor base would represent a significant step forward.
But progress in the securities markets has been limited. Though the adoption of some EU legislation has served to open up national markets, little headway has been made in providing issuers with access to the alluring prospect of investors across the whole of Europe.
Earlier legislative efforts (specifically the Listing Particulars Directive and the Public Offers of Securities Directive) created, in theory, the right conditions for issuers to gain access to a European-wide capital market.