Playing the capital market? Sustainable finance and the discursive construction of the Capital Markets Union as a common good

The Capital Markets Union (CMU) project aims to create more integrated capital markets in Europe. However, the project faces resistance, and despite ongoing efforts EU capital markets remain fragmented. Based on an analysis of European Commission documents and ECB speeches, the paper identifies and conceptualises a set of discursive strategies employed to relegitimise the stalling CMU project and mobilise market-based finance for green investments. We distinguish two periods. First, the Commission used discursive strategies to introduce sustainable finance into the EU agenda, strategically framing it ‘as part of’ the CMU project. The strategies aimed to attract private finance, restore trust in market-based finance and reassure that the competitiveness of European industry would not be endangered by sustainability-related regulations. Second, since the launch of the European Green Deal and amid slow progress on the CMU, the Commission and ECB have constructed the CMU as key to financing the green transition and, more recently, other common goods. The analysis sheds light on the political dimension of this strategy by showing it primarily addresses the demands of certain fractions of the financial industry and, to a certain extent, of some environmental civil society organisations, while critical objections regarding market-based finance remain largely unacknowledged.