In 2011, the European Commission launched a public consultation on ‘the European Corporate Governance framework’, reflecting the EU's increasing concern about corporate governance issues, and the changes and reforms needed in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The question raised is twofold: first, should new objectives be established, and secondly, which of the various regulatory mechanisms, the traditional unification/coordination tools or the more recent comply‐or‐explain rule, would best fulfill these objectives? The article discusses how the financial crisis has made the harmonization of corporate governance more imperative, why the objectives of corporate governance rules must be enlarged to preserve the interests of companies as a whole, and which mechanism would best achieve these changes. More specifically, it tackles the comply‐or‐explain rule already widespread in Europe, discussing its major advantages and flaws, as well as the efficiency of its control by national and European market authorities.