Vis à vis another attempt to relegitimise the CMU, relaunching it in the form of the SIU, and the deregulatory turn of the Omnibus, the strategies highlighted in this paper can serve as a reference point to study how the relation between sustainability and financial capital is currently contested.

By proposing the political strategy of ‘playing the capital market’, the paper emphasizes the strategic malleability of market-related ideas by EU institutions, but also the necessity to relegitimise them in the name of a common good

In addition, the strategy aimed to reconcile the tension between the goal of redirecting financial flows to meet environmental targets and the competitiveness of the European financial and industrial system

By introducing sustainable finance into the EU agenda 'as part of' the CMU project in 2016, their strategy aimed to ease the tension between the short-termism and volatility of market-based finance, which EU institutions aimed to mobilize, and the long-term nature of green investments

The paper explores how the European Commission and the ECB have sought to relegitimise the Capital Markets Union (CMU) and mobilise market-based finance for green investments.