“The U.K., defeated in a campaign to derail European Union curbs on banker bonuses, goes to the bloc’s top court tomorrow in a bid to overturn the powers of an EU agency to ban short selling.
Britain will argue at the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice that the European Securities and Markets Authority’s decision-making ability comes at the expense of national supervisors, in the latest skirmish against the EU’s growing powers over financial services.
“The Brits have a tradition of objecting to more power being given to the European Commission or EU agencies,” said Karel Lannoo, chief executive officer of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. If ESMA has been handed the powers to “avoid a bad functioning of the single market, then there’s nothing against this” in the bloc’s rules, he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to seek a new settlement with the EU, amid a rising tide of opposition that saw the U.K. Independence Party, which advocates a divorce from the bloc, gains seats in local elections last month. While Cameron has said he plans a referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017, this has failed to quell calls from members of his Conservative Party for Britain’s European destiny to be put to the people sooner.
