The European Union’s plan to quell big banks’ proprietary trading has been met with criticism from French banking lobbyists who say it will give an advantage to US banks, which would not be affected by the new rules.

Interestingly, the rules the European Union has agreed upon are already less severe than their initial plans to actually break up large banks, which were deemed “to big to fail” after the fall of the Lehman Brothers sparked the financial crisis of 2008.

While French banking lobbyists criticize the European Union’s plans, saying they will take away French banks’ freedom to trade, EU commissioner Mike Brainer has pointed out that the new rules will not actually restrict the banks from trading, but merely make them move the trading to a separated subsidiary. The goal behind this is to separate risky trading from the safer banking actives like deposit taking.

Meanwhile, as French banking lobbyists criticize the European Union for being too strict, other countries like Germany and England have found the rule to be adequate, according to a Reuters report on the matter. And, furthermore, other countries have found the EU’s plans to be too lenient on the banks.

The rule will wind up being similar to the US Volcker Rule, though the banning of proprietary trading will only wind up affecting the top 30 European banks.

Regardless, the European Union will have plenty of time to debate the issue, as rules aren’t likely to go into effect until 2017.