On 18 November 2019, the European Commission (EC) announced the composition of the High Level Forum of the Capital Markets Union (CMU). 28 experts from the business and finance sector, non-governmental organizations and other institutions will contribute, share their ideas and experiences for the next stage of the development and finalization of the Capital Markets Union project. The Forum is made up of three subgroups focused on:

• Creating an ecosystem that allows for easy capital raising, with particular attention to innovative SMEs;
• developing the structure of the European capital market, paying particular attention to how new financial technologies can support this process;
• choice of investments and accessibility to services in the capital markets to encourage greater participation of individual and small investors.

The Chairwoman of the Association of Investor Relations Directors in Bulgaria and a member of the Capital Markets Council of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, who is also (as of October 2019) presiding the National Corporate Governance Committee, Ms. Daniela Peeva, was elected to represent the interests of the small markets in the first subgroup: creating an ecosystem that allows for easy capital raising, with particular attention to innovative SMEs.

The Forum started its work on November 26, 2019 and aims to present a set of recommendations on Union capital market policy by the end of May 2020.

“I hope that with my professional expertise I will contribute to discussing the future of the European Capital Markets Union, but the most important task I set for myself is to be the voice in small markets that have specific needs and which mostly suffer from over-regulation, lack of investor interest and liquidity”, said Daniela Peeva.