Romania called, at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting, for the integration of European capital markets to facilitate Romanian companies' access to financing and take into account the specific characteristics of developing markets, interim Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare said in a post on his Facebook page.

'I called for more capital for Romanian companies and European rules that work for developing markets at the ECOFIN. I spoke at the ECOFIN during the debate on MISP [the Market Integration and Supervision Package], the European package for the integration and supervision of capital markets. It is one of the most technical and complex files on the European agenda, but what is at stake is very concrete: how easily Romanian companies can attract financing from Europe and how well investors and the Romanian market are protected.
Romania supports the need for a European-level agreement on this package. However, I underscored that the success of integration should not be measured solely by how much we centralise the rules, but by the real financing opportunities we create in all Member States. For a smaller capital market such as Romania's, integration must mean access for companies to a broader investor base, more options for savers and better conditions for the development of the local market,' Nazare said.

The minister also presented a series of measures supported by Romania within the negotiations concerning the strengthening of national supervisory authorities' powers and the facilitation of cross-border activity on capital markets.

'During the negotiations, Romania supported and secured important measures. Romanian authorities will have greater powers to intervene when investment firms operating in Romania breach the rules, without the response depending exclusively on the authority in the country of origin. At the same time, we supported rules that allow market participants in smaller markets to operate more easily across borders and provide better access to the single market,' the interim Finance Minister explained.

Another issue addressed was Romanian authorities' access to information on cross-border transactions carried out by investors from Romania.

'Another important gain is Romanian authorities' access to information about transactions by investors from Romania, including when these take place on markets in other Member States. In an increasingly integrated financial market, supervision cannot lag behind capital. This helps us better identify risks and potential market abuse,' Nazare said.

The minister added that Romania had also supported a change to the way national authorities' contributions to the funding of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) are calculated.

'We also supported a fairer and more proportionate formula for national authorities' contributions to the funding of ESMA, the EU agency that helps supervise and regulate European financial markets. It is only right that these contributions should better reflect the size and actual activity of each country's financial market, rather than a historical formula that has no bearing on the current reality of the markets,' the minister mentioned.

The Finance Minister also underscored the need to attract a greater volume of private capital into the economy.

'We need more private capital in the economy, Romanian companies that can more easily finance investments and regional expansion and a local capital market that grows alongside Europe's major financial centres,' the Finance Minister conveyed. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: George Banciulea; EN - writing by: Rodica State)