The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has urged the European Commission to shelve its White Paper proposals on the integration of EU mortgage markets.

The CML said that conditions have changed so much in the months since the White Paper was prepared and published in December last year that it would make no sense to proceed. Instead, the CML urges the Commission to focus its efforts for the time being on work to support financial stability. New mortgage market proposals should only be developed following a detailed analysis of the economic and mortgage market changes that are emerging.

Andrew Heywood, CML deputy head of policy, said: “Many European mortgage markets have changed so dramatically in recent months that the only sensible step at this stage is to drop the proposals and start again from a basis of analysing likely future market conditions.

“Proposals to further the integration of markets are unlikely to produce net benefits in the present climate. We believe that the Commission itself recognises this, and will not bring forward proposals in the immediate future. They have also launched a broad programme of work on financial stability, which is a sensible and timely development.”