The main challenge in the EU post-crisis financial landscape is to identify a proper organizational structure for regulating and supervising – or governing, complex cross-sector and cross-border institutions and transactions. Policymakers and scholars are studying this problem and attempting to develop an optimal ‘governance framework’ within one or more Member State jurisdictions. Even in the years prior to the financial crisis EU policy makers stressed the importance of a higher level of coordination among competent authorities at national and EU level in steering finance. Finally, the last financial turmoil has led to an overwhelming regulatory reform and re-vamp of the organizational governance arrangements of the EU financial system. 

Against this background the project ‘Governance of Financial Institutions and Markets in the EU’ (acronym ‘GOFIMEU’) proposes a teaching upgrade and enhancement of the research in a compulsory course already being taught at the UNIPU. 

In view of increasing the interest in EU integration studies within the Croatian academia, the relevance of this project is substantive given the lack of a critical mass of research work addressing the issue of the optimal solutions for governance arrangements in EU finance. Consequently the project sets out to promote research on a specialized issue of European studies within the Croatian academic community, namely that of governance in the financial system, emphasizing the relationship between supranational operational structures and different regulatory approaches currently in use, and their ultimate impact on overall stability of EU finance.

The project “Governance of Financial Institutions and Markets in the EU” is expected to develop teaching, enhance research and stimulate reflection on EU governance studies at the level of the UNIPU and in Croatia. Its primary target are graduate students in Economics (within and outside the UNIPU) especially those whose specialization in the project’s topic is imperative for a professional career in finance – in their home country or within the EU. At the same time the project’s secondary target are UNIPU’s academics among which the project intends to mainstream teaching on specialized subjects in EU integration studies. Henceforth it is expected that the project will not only give a ‘European perspective’ to the future professional life of graduates but also promote the extension of a ‘European angle’ in teaching and research.