UK Fights Back After Italy Calls For Further Market Regulation

The UK government has today sought to block moves by the European Union that would see financial markets across Europe centralised in order to provide opportunities for harmonisation throughout the region.

Chancellor Alistair Darling today said that he would be opposed to further regulation in the area throughout the European Union, which at present sees little more than cooperation between financial industry regulators throughout member states.

However Italy’s finance minister, Tomasso Padoa-Schioppa has today called for the EU to introduce a uniform body of rules to be enforced throughout the European Union, with a view to creating singular financial market regulations throughout the region.

Alistair Darling is opposed to the idea on the grounds that the UK has independently built up a strong financial services industry and would not be keen to alter its regulation in order to meet EU-wide minimums, particularly given intrinsic differences in the law in many other EU member states which would naturally lead to conflict and problems in establishing a single unitary code.

Darling has today called on Germany to back his proposals not to move forward with a singular European regulation, given the strong position Germany and the UK hold in common over the European financial markets sector.

At present the system is merely one of cooperation between the member states as was established back in 2001, with a view to avoiding the problems arising from ongoing differences of legal and commercial opinion throughout the region.

However with the Italian authorities calling today for further regulation in the area, it remains to be seen whether the UK can stave off any further encroachments on the current state of affairs.

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