The Case for Truly Independent EU Regulatory Authorities in the Field of Financial Regulation

In the wake of the financial crisis, the European Union established the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS), a ‘hub and spoke’ network of national and Union supervisory authorities, aimed at ensuring a stable and single Union financial market for financial services by linking national supervisors within a strong Union network. The ESFS is composed of three European Supervisory Authorities, as well as a Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities and an European Sys- temic Risk Board. This article makes two arguments. The first is that the European Supervisory Authorities should be reformed. In order to work more effectively they should possess final regulatory and supervisory powers and, more generally, a higher degree of independence. The second claim is that EU Treaties allow such reforms, provided that they meet the constitutional requirements concerning the delegation of power as clarified in the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.