The End of EU Financial Regulatory Internationalism?

This paper grapples with the issue of EU internationalism in the area of financial regulation.  It first delineates between two dimensions of internationalism – integrationism and multilateralism – noting that since 2007 it is increasingly difficult to be internationalist in both senses.  After discussing policymakers’ confidence in EU internationalism as well as scholarly debates, we report on our own comparative study of 10 regulatory areas, over time and with respect to the US and international soft law.  Our findings suggest that compared to 2007 the EU and the US have become less integrationist – though they have done so in a highly coordinated fashion, at least through 2011, but less so afterwards; and the EU, contrary to its image as portrayed by EU officials, has also become less multilateralist, notably after 2010, in contrast to the US becoming slightly more.  The second half of the paper explores alternative explanations for the observed pattern of EU internationalism, focusing on the politicization of financial regulation, the expanding number of countries represented on transnational regulatory bodies, and the politics of crisis inside the EU.