Luxembourg Ministry of Finance reports Gilles Roth pushed for capital markets deepening and cautioned against centralising ESMA supervision at Eurogroup and Ecofin

Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance published a communiqué on Finance Minister Gilles Roth’s participation in the Eurogroup and Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meetings in Brussels on 9–10 March 2026, which covered the euro area macroeconomic outlook, competitiveness and recent developments in digital finance. In the Ecofin discussion on the package on financial markets integration and supervision, Roth argued that priorities should focus on initiatives that materially deepen capital markets and that transforming the European Securities and Markets Authority into a centralised supervisory authority would not help meet those objectives. Eurogroup exchanges were framed by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and evolving energy prices and included discussion of distributed ledger technologies, tokenisation and stablecoins. Ecofin also reviewed the economic and financial repercussions of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and held a preparatory exchange ahead of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., aimed at aligning a common European approach and message.