Brussels, 24/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaité, has given three reasons for banking union - restoring confidence in banking, improving and coordinating high-quality bank supervision and preventing bank crises. She made the comments on Tuesday 23 July after a meeting in Vilnius with EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier.
In a press release, Grybauskaité said the resolution scheme for banks, created as part of banking union, would make it easier to manage bank crises in the future and the costs of bailing out struggling banks would be borne by banks themselves, which would protect taxpayers' money and reduce the risks for public finance.
Stressing the importance of the Lithuanian Presidency as the Commission's and Parliament's terms of office come to an end, Barnier said that the Ecofin Council and European Parliament would each be able to decide on their negotiating positions by the end of the year for the Commission's draft legislation to set up a single bank resolution scheme (see EUROPE 10885). He said after the Competitiveness Council meeting that a few more weeks might be needed to finalise an inter-institutional agreement before the end of the current European Parliament (in the spring of next year). (MB/transl.fl)