The European Union’s finance ministers have this week weighed in with their proposal to regulate credit rating agencies, largely tracking a speech last month by Charlie McCreevy, EU internal market commissioner. Now, the hard part begins.

It is easier to propose broad concepts than to draft specific laws and if this legislation, which will be written during the coming months, is to be more than the “toothless wonder” Mr McCreevy has called voluntary codes, it must include two elements: removal of rating-based rules and reliance on markets. Unfortunately, with the exception of a brief comment on Tuesday from Alistair Darling, the British chancellor of the exchequer, EU regulators have not yet mentioned either.