The Fight against White-Collar Crime as European Financial Crisis Rescuer: Regulatory Challenges and the Tough on Crime Approach

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the financial crisis through the lens of market construction and thereby investigate the EU’s current strategies to tackle the financial crisis through measures taken to fight irregularities in the market. Before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty the EU had a very limited competence in the field of criminal law and therefore developed a unique tapestry for the enactment of sanctions through the framework of the internal market powers of Article 114 Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Although being a somewhat late response to the European financial crisis that started in 2008, the EU has in recent years increasingly focused on the need to adopt anti-fraud measures and other measures to stabilize the market. There is now an increased move towards regulatory strategies across different sectors in EU law particularly with regard to EU action within the financial market sphere.