EU financial market regulation after the global financial crisis: "more Europe” or more risks?

This article charts the EU's regulatory response to the global financial crisis, and explores what the response suggests about the new regulatory landscape and its risks. It explores how the current reform programme, in contrast to earlier reform periods, has been dominated by a concern to manage the pathology of the internal market through intensive EU "rules on the books" (law-making) but also, and for the first time in EU financial market regulation, through more radical "rules in action" (supervision and enforcement). The defining feature of the post-crisis reform movement seems to be the array of influences, chief among the new institutional structures, which are driving the financial markets regime toward greater centralization. The article examines this decisive move towards "More Europe" and assesses its ramifications. It argues that, while radical reform is certainly needed, the extent to which the EU now governs financial market regulation does generate risks, particularly with respect to the extent to which Member State flexibility and discretion is being squeezed from the regime