CHALLENGES OF HARMONIZATION WITH EU STANDARDS IN CAPITAL MARKET PROTECTION BY CRIMINAL LAW - EXAMPLE OF ITALIAN LEGISLATION

Abstract

In the modern economies, capital markets can greatly contribute to the development of the national economy. Bearing in mind above mentioned, during the time the idea of improving the protection of the capital market participant’s interests has been developed. Therefore, at the EU level in 2014 has been adopted Regulation and Directive which provides the obligation for member states to prescribe the criminal sanctions for capital market abuses. Nowadays, almost all national legislation provides protection of the capital market participants interests by criminal law. In some of them criminal sanctions have been provided by secondary criminal legislation. Such an approach exists in the Republic of Serbia and Italy. Before the accession to the European Union, the Republic of Serbia should harmonize its national legislation with Union acquis. Bearing in mind the similarity of access to capital markets protection by criminal law between Italian and Serbian legislation, perhaps some Italian solutions could be an example for further harmonization with EU standards. Therefore, the subject of analysis in this paper is the capital market protection by Italian criminal law and its compliance with the EU legislation in this area.