Editors' Note

Capital market or capital markets? We say the latter in thetitle of this Journal. The articles in this issue, however,deal with attempts to harmonise, codify and direct a more commonapproach, albeit regional in some cases, for capital marketactivities, which we know are sometimes slow to respect eithernational jurisdictional     

The pan-European retail market are we there yet?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• When the EU Prospectus Directive was introduced inlate 2003, there was great optimism that it would finally leadto the long awaited pan-EEA retail capital market.
• This articleasks whether the Directive has achieved this result and looks,in particular, at the disclosure regime relating to the admissionof debt securities to EEA-regulated markets and the public offeringof such securities in the EEA.
• A number of impediments to thecross-border retail market, that are completely separate fromdisclosure, are examined.
• In conclusion, the article discusseswhether, in fact, expectations for the Prospectus Directivein this area were set too high and could never be met and looksat what more needs to be done in order to achieve the goal ofa single retail debt market in the EEA.