Corporate governance regulation forms an integral part of the socio-economic restructuring in the European Union. The regulation and public policies necessary for the functioning of the capitalist market system play an important role in facilitating or constraining particular corporate governance regimes. In the EU, we are witnessing not only an increase in regulatory attention to corporate governance, but also a transformation in the regulatory environment in terms of form and content. These changes are geared at bringing about a corporate governance system in which the market is seen as the primary arbiter of ‘good corporate governance’ - yet it is regulation by political actors that establishes this market-based regulatory framework at the first place. 
 
This PhD project takes on these developments from a critical political economy perspective. It is argued that, in order to explain the transformation of corporate governance regulation in the EU, it is essential to understand the inherently political nature of these processes, in terms of structural changes in the global political economy as well as with regard to the agency of transnational social forces engaged in a constant struggle over the socio-economic order in the EU. The focus here is on external corporate governance mechanisms such as takeover regulation and shareholder rights.
 
The project seeks to outline the changes in corporate governance in the EU, to give an analysis of the main actors and their role in driving these change, and, ultimately, to provide an explanation for this process of marketisation.