The freedom of capital movement is a condition for the full implementation of the Single Market, a founding principle of the European Union. Over the last decades, capital mobility has grown considerably, and the introduction of the euro has further increased its role and importance. Cross-border credit activities have grown significantly, and financial operators have emerged that are truly European in nature and able to compete on global markets. Bourses and bond markets have internationalized their operations. Financial integration has helped the internationalization of European firms of all sizes, and has made the Single Market a more tangible reality, making it evident that this is the most important weapon Europe has on the international arena. But the process of integration of European capital markets is far from0 complete. Differences in regulation, and political and cultural obstacles are preventing a paneuropean reorganization of the market. At the EU level, reforms must be devised that increase the openness, transparence, and stability of European capital markets. In Italy and France, as well as in other EU members, there are hindrances to the possibility of attaining a single and open financial market for all companies and investors.

  Banking rules and financial regulations, and the supervision of them, are still unevenly applied and largely left to member states. Political authorities and parts of national public opinions are often backing a position of financial protectionism, looking to "national champions", rather than to European corporations able to play the global game. Often the interest of producers, capital and labor, to be shielded from international competition prevails on the interest of consumers for higher quality and lower prices, brought by a more integrated European market open to global competition.

  The interest of scarcely contestable companies owned by entrenched private groups or national governments, prevails on the interests of the majority of investors and shareholders who would like a open and transparent market for corporate control, capable of disciplining companies into sound management. If the unification and reorganization of European capital markets is not speeded up, Europe will lose out in terms of power and financial attractiveness on the global marketplace.

  A European uniform approach is needed to manage the financial crisis that has been plaguing the US since last summer, which has now turned global and affects the whole of the European banking system. The challenge of sovereign wealth funds also needs a united European response. More efficient and transparent forms of European corporate governance need to be introduced so to minimize the economic and political risks posed by them.

  Contestability in the control of corporations, transparence in their governance, international openness in capital markets, these are the crucial objectives for the efficiency of the European economy. Making more flexible and open the labor market, without a symmetric process on the side of capital, would be economically distorting and politically unsustainable.