Brussels, 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU member states' representatives on the Coreper committee confirmed on Thursday 18 April a unanimous agreement on a eurozone bank supervision mechanism under the aegis of the ECB that will come into force in a year's time at the latest. In a press release, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said: “This agreement on the single banking supervisor is a major step towards banking union. We need to build on this momentum to make progress on the next building blocks: bank resolution and deposit guarantees”.
Member states have slightly amended their position in order to comply with Germany's last-minute demands (see EUROPE 10827) that the new system be more accountable to citizen representatives, demands that the European Parliament is likely to go along with. An expert said that he thought everything had been agreed for the new rules and, therefore, no further three-way meetings would be needed. The European Parliament is expected to endorse the draft legislation at the May plenary.
A statement from the member states was negotiated at a recent Ecofin Council and will be annexed to the draft legislation. At the request of Berlin, the member states have agreed to take a constructive look at any suggested changes to the treaty to give the bank supervision mechanism greater legitimacy. The German request is expected to surface again in the talks about setting up an independent bank resolution authority and a bank resolution fund, which the Commission is due to unveil plans for in June. The legislation will pave the way for a pooling of liability for bailing out banks in struggling countries, an option that the German government is trying to put on the back burner ahead of the general elections in September.
The EP and ECB have started negotiating an inter-institutional deal on transparency and accountability requirements for the new bank supervision system. (MB/transl.fl)