In addressing the proposals of the European Commission on securitised assets, the European Parliament (EP) is missing the point, argue Ewald Engelen and Anna Glasmacher. In the third part of their series of articles on FTM about this issue, they analyse the working document prepared by Dutch rapporteur Paul Tang which will serve as the basis for the EP’s debate, and address what they see as its flaws.

Ewald Engelen and Anna Glasmacher call upon members of European Parliament to wake up and block the return of bankers' paradise before it is too late. The 'Capital Markets Union' envisioned by the European Commission only reproduces the status-quo of an unsustainable financial oligopoly that sustains the few at the expense of the many.

Today European Commissioner Jonathan Hill presented his long awaited action plan for the creation of a Europe-wide Capital Markets Union in Brussels. A key plank of this Union is the attempt to resuscitate the market for securitized mortgage loans, which, due to its role in igniting the financial crisis, has been moribund since the outbreak of the crisis. The aim of the Commission is to create a new market for safe securitizations based on simple, transparent and standardized products. In the article below Ewald Engelen and Anna Glasmacher, both from the University of Amsterdam, critically discuss a draft proposal to that effect, that they have obtained through wikileaks. The authors argue that the proposal is based on faulty assumptions, is dangerous in that it furthers financialization and that it hence should be stopped.