Brussels, 21/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 21 May, MEPs seemed to agree about the fact that, despite the urgency of setting up a banking supervision mechanism, the first pillar of banking union, action should not be too hastily.
Sylvie Goulard (ALDE, France) said there were still some conditions to be clarified before an agreement could be endorsed. Like many others, she has doubts concerning the choice of the European Central Bank (ECB) as a supervisory body.
It is necessary, Goulard said, to find a way of organising things within the ECB in order to clearly separate monetary policy from the new supervisory attributes. She added that she believed this was feasible. Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany), who is the rapporteur on this dossier, acknowledged that there were legal limits to that separation but that, during negotiations, they had taken matters as far as possible. Michel Barnier, Internal Market Commissioner, said the same thing, giving his assurance that the two areas of competence will be effectively and completely separate in practice.
Antolin Sanchez Presedo (S&D, Spain) said that, when one has power, one must shoulder the democratic responsibilities arising from that power. On this point, Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium) expressed outrage at the ECB's attitude, or rather that of the members of its executive board, Yves Mersch of Luxembourg and Vitor Manuel Ribeiro Constancio of Portugal. According to Lamberts, the two men had, in essence, told the European Parliament that it had nothing to do with that matter. The ECB, added Burkhard Balz (EPP, Germany) should act in transparency and accountability. In Balz's eyes, the confidence that springs from the credibility of the Frankfurt institute is good but control is still better. Barnier said that, if the monetary supervision unit (MSU) had been available three years ago, many of the problems would have been avoided. Lucinda Creighton, Irish European Affairs Minister, pointed out that the MSU was only a first stage in banking union, and that much remained to be done on the other pillars. Barnier promised proposals would be made in the next few weeks. (EL/transl.jl)