Eurohypothec & Eurotrust: two instruments for a true European mortgage market after the EC White Paper 2007 on the Integration of EU Mortgage Credit Markets

This working paper is based on a speech given by the author at ZERPUniversität Bremen, in response to an invitation by Prof. Christoph Schmid, on 7th December 2007. The topic of the Eurohypothec is older than 60 years now, but it is only recently that it has again assumed prominence on the European Commission’s agenda. It all began with the release of the Green Paper on the Mortgage Market 2005, which dedicated a whole point of discussion to the idea of the Eurohypothec, quoting a piece of research that contains the model of Eurohypothec that was created by a group of researchers after several years of studying the matter: the Basic Guidelines for a Eurohypothec 2005.1 In December 2007, the EC White Paper, which deals with the steps required to advance the integration of EU mortgage markets, was released. This working paper seeks to depict the Eurohypothec and the Eurotrust from the perspective of the EU Commission Green Paper 2005 and the EU Commission White Paper 2007, while providing a real case of a new mortgage
law (the Spanish one) that does not achieve the same degree of usefulness that the Eurohypothec provides.