The EU market integration package is the Commission’s most ambitious attempt to shift capital market supervision from national capitals to Europe’s securities regulator. Proposed in December 2025, it reached the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee this summer, where the first draft reports show how far the political groups want to go.
The package has three legal parts. A Master Regulation amends 14 existing regulations, a Master Directive changes UCITS, AIFMD and MiFID II, and a new Settlement Finality Regulation replaces the current directive. Under the Commission text, the European Securities and Markets Authority would directly supervise significant central counterparties, significant central securities depositories, significant trading venues, a new category of pan-European market operators, and crypto-asset service providers other than credit institutions.
Markus Ferber, the centre-right rapporteur on the Master Regulation, wants to widen that remit. His draft report would give ESMA direct supervision of all EU central counterparties and central securities depositories, not only the significant ones, and of large crypto-asset service providers, while smaller firms stay under national authorities. He also adds a competitiveness objective to ESMA’s mandate and proposes to turn the DLT Pilot Regime into a permanent framework with higher caps.
Eero Heinäluoma, the Socialist rapporteur on the Master Directive, goes in a different direction on funds. He proposes that ESMA oversee large asset management groups, judged by net asset value and cross-border activity, and that it gain direct powers over depositories. He would also bar non-EU alternative investment funds based in non-cooperative tax jurisdictions from being marketed in the EU and require stress tests for open-ended funds. Giovanni Crosetto, from the Conservatives and Reformists, leads on the Settlement Finality Regulation.
The timetable for the market integration package is tight. Other members of the committee had until 16 July 2026 to table amendments, and the committee is due to vote on its negotiating positions on 1 December 2026. Commission analysts had expected adoption in late 2026, but a committee vote that late means that goal now looks out of reach, with trilogues likely to run well into 2027.
Stakeholders were split during the consultation on how much supervision the market integration package should centralise. Large exchanges and clearing houses worry about a single supervisor and the costs of moving from a national regulator, while smaller markets fear losing national influence. Some observers also note that the open access provisions stop short of requiring full interoperability between infrastructure operators, which limits the effect on fragmented post-trade markets.
For the Savings and Investments Union, the market integration package is the test of whether member states will accept real transfers of power. If Parliament and the Council converge on ESMA supervision of the biggest infrastructures, Europe could finally get deeper and more liquid capital markets. If they dilute it, the market integration package may end up as another round of simplification without a single European market to show for it.
