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Michel Barnier steps down at the end of October after a frantic five-year stint during which more than 40 new financial laws were approved, some of which Britain is challenging in the EU's top court.
He told an audience in the City - London's financial district which accounts for 37 percent of the EU's wholesale financial market - that Brussels has "no interest in undermining the UK" or London's place as the bloc's top financial centre.
Instead it wants to further integrate the 28-country single market by creating a capital markets union to boost share listings and private investments and improve the effectiveness of non-bank financing for the economy.
"Given the UK's position as home to Europe's largest capital market, it is obvious that it should play a central position in this game," Barnier said. "This will be one very important project that my successor will want to drive forward."