Financial Services Action Plan
The Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) is an important part of the European Union's attempt to create a single market for financial services. Created in 1999 and lasting for a period of six years, it contained 42 articles on the harmonization of financial services markets within the European Union. It should be completed by the end of 2004.
The European Council , held in Cardiff in June 1998 , called on the European Commission to “put in place a framework for improving the internal market for financial services, in particular to examine the effectiveness of the implementation of the current legislation and to identify weaknesses that require legislative changes could. "
The European Commission responded with five action areas which were adopted at the European Council in Vienna in December 1998 . The Financial Services Action Plan was adopted on May 11, 1999 by the European Commission.
The cornerstone for achieving the action plan is Directive 2004/39 / EC on markets in financial instruments , which came into force in 2007 and which was replaced in 2018 by a successor version of Directive 2014/65 / EU on markets in financial instruments (abbreviated as the Financial Markets Directive; MiFID) .