A capital markets union would create a single market for capital in the EU. It would create a single market for private capital in the EU territory. Proponents argue that the union would integrate capital markets and protect the Eurozone from financial crises. In 2023 France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland argued that the overhaul of financial markets would help tap private capital for Europe’s huge investment needs in defense and the green transition, which run to hundreds of billions of euros a year. Opponents (including a majority of the EU’s 27 member states) argue that the union would cede national control and give more regulatory power to Brussels.
