TheCityUK has published a new report calling for UK financial and related professional services to become a central pillar of the UK-EU relationship, arguing that stronger cooperation will be essential if Europe is to mobilise the private capital needed to strengthen competitiveness, support economic growth and finance its long-term security and resilience objectives.
The report, ‘Priorities for UK-EU relations: a pragmatic path to progress in financial and related professional services’, outlines a series of practical and deliverable recommendations to strengthen UK-EU cooperation while respecting the regulatory autonomy of both sides.
It argues that Europe's security, defence capability and economic resilience are increasingly interconnected. Against a backdrop of geopolitical instability, higher defence spending requirements, demographic pressures, and the energy transition, policymakers on both sides of the Channel face the shared challenge of creating the right conditions for investment, innovation and infrastructure development to prosper across Europe.
With the new date of the next UK-EU Leaders' Summit pending, TheCityUK urges policymakers to use the time to prioritise financial and related professional services as a core part of discussions on Europe's future growth, competitiveness and security when leaders next meet.
Miles Celic, OBE, Chief Executive Officer of TheCityUK, said: "The UK and EU face a common challenge: how to boost growth, improve competitiveness, accelerate innovation, and build greater resilience. Meeting that challenge will require significant investment and financial and related professional services have a vital role to play.
“With deep financial, economic and commercial links already in place between the UK and the EU, the focus now should be on enhancing cooperation and reducing unnecessary barriers to unlock investment and drive prosperity right across Europe.”
The report sets out a series of recommendations, including calls for:
Enhancing UK-EU regulatory cooperation through a forward-looking Joint UK-EU Financial Regulatory Forum.
Improving technical interoperability in areas such as transaction reporting, sustainability reporting and digital regulation.
Reducing barriers to business mobility, including through broader access to Schengen e-gates, improvements for short-term business visitors and a UK-EU youth mobility scheme.
Developing more effective approaches to the mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
Addressing long-term uncertainty around data adequacy and UK central counterparty equivalence decisions.
Strengthening UK-EU cooperation on defence and resilience financing, recognising that private capital will play a vital role in supporting Europe's long-term security objectives.
The report, which draws on extensive consultation with industry stakeholders, makes clear that financial and related professional services should be recognised as a strategic enabler of the UK and EU's wider economic, competitiveness and security agenda. Deeper cooperation can help mobilise investment, strengthen resilience, reduce unnecessary friction and support shared European priorities in the years ahead.