In brief
The Council removed Deutsche Börse's national venues, SIX Group, Tradition and Tradegate from direct ESMA supervision, and cut trading venue operators under ESMA from 12 to 8.
Three of nine CCPs (CBOE Clear, BME and Nasdaq Clearing) and two CSDs (Iberclear and the Baltic Nasdaq CSD) were removed, reducing the CSD count from 15 to 13.
Only 10 to 15 of about 360 crypto-asset service providers in the EU will fall under ESMA oversight, according to officials.
Belgium abstained, and Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque said the compromise sends the wrong signal, with the vote otherwise near-unanimous.
What the compromise changes
EU finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Friday 9 October agreed a compromise on the Market Integration and Supervision Package, the Commission's proposal presented in December 2025 to move oversight of key market players to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris. The Commission had envisaged all stock exchanges, large central counterparties (CCPs) and central securities depositories (CSDs) being supervised by ESMA rather than national authorities. The Council text is a scaled-back version of that plan, and the aim is to reduce fragmentation across 27 legal systems and make the bloc more attractive to innovative companies that often choose to relocate to the United States. Irish finance minister Simon Harris, whose country holds the rotating Council presidency, led the negotiations and defended the outcome.
Harris put the deal in terms of pragmatism.
“People can hold out for the perfect, or people can hold hands and jump together with the good.”
The single-supervisor idea was meant to apply the same EU rules in the same way in every country, removing national interpretations that add cost and bureaucracy. Germany refused to back the original proposal unless Deutsche Börse stayed under German supervision, and the compromise was shaped around that demand.
Who falls outside ESMA
The compromise introduces trading thresholds and geographic footprint criteria that allow Deutsche Börse's nationally oriented trading venues to avoid ESMA oversight. The same criteria exclude Swiss operator SIX Group, which runs the Madrid bourse and Aquis, as well as the French-owned Tradition and the Deutsche Börse-owned platform Tradegate. The number of trading venue operators due to pass under direct ESMA supervision falls from 12 to 8, and the selection depends on market share and cross-border activity. Euronext, which also owns Borsa Italiana, is expected to come under direct ESMA supervision because it operates across several national markets. Three of the original nine CCPs, CBOE Clear in the Netherlands, BME in Spain and Nasdaq Clearing in Sweden, were removed from ESMA's jurisdiction. The initial 15 CSDs were reduced to 13, with Spain's Iberclear and the Baltic Nasdaq CSD dropped. Officials said only 10 to 15 of the roughly 360 crypto-asset service providers in the EU will be subject to ESMA oversight.
- Trading venues, Commission proposal
- 12 entities
- Trading venues, Council compromise
- 8 entities
- CSDs, Commission proposal
- 15 entities
- CSDs, Council compromise
- 13 entities
Data from the article text
Smaller EU countries also secured concessions that give national supervisors more influence in ESMA decision-making.
Criticism inside the Council and from Brussels
Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque criticised the compromise sharply. She said the text removes four trading venue groups, three CCPs and two CSDs from ESMA supervision compared with the Commission proposal, and she argued that equal competition conditions can no longer be claimed.
“We are sending the wrong signal.”
She added that stronger national supervision makes oversight inefficient and expensive. Belgium abstained in the vote, and finance minister Jan Jambon warned that the new exemptions would fragment the EU market and distort competition, the very outcome joint supervision was meant to prevent. He placed much of the blame on Berlin.
“I believe Germany has won in some cases.”
Denmark also accepted the compromise only reluctantly and shared the criticism of the new exemptions. Diplomats said Germany and Luxembourg had secured their demands, and Luxembourg had pushed for weaker governance than the Commission had proposed.
Reactions from Berlin and Paris
German finance minister Lars Klingbeil called the agreement a very important and significant step for investment and employment in Europe, and said he was grateful that everyone had made compromises. French finance minister Roland Lescure welcomed the deal as a good result for everyone and described the day as a great day for Europe.
What happens next
The Council will finalise the legal text to reflect the political agreement and approve it formally at a later Council meeting. Negotiations on the final law will then continue with the European Parliament once the legislature sets its own position. The Commission will review the thresholds two years after they take effect to check whether they are adequate. Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever plans to raise the issue at the EU summit in Brussels next week, and diplomats expect him to push for further changes on governance.