Brussels, 24/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, François Hollande, held a private meeting on Friday 24 October before the start of the European Summit to discuss the bank resolution side of banking union in the eurozone.
In Franco-German guidelines on European integration in the medium term, they drew up a common position on bank resolution, stating that the single resolution mechanism should be based on the existing EU treaties; a single resolution council of national resolution authorities should take speedy decisions at central level; in time, contributions from the financial industry should pre-finance an efficient, private aid body, based on mechanisms existing at national level; and the ESM should ensure extra public support and might, in the future, be linked to the bank resolution mechanism (see EUROPE 10857).
The Süddeutsche Zeitung says that Germany feels the scope of the resolution scheme should be aligned with the banks supervision scheme: “First of all, the eurozone should assume joint responsibility for only 130 banks out of 6,000 (Ed: see EUROPE 10949) including no more than 30 German firms. Secondly, in case of emergency, shareholders and creditors must assume responsibility themselves in compliance with predetermined payment schedules. And third, national parliaments must approve government aid”. (MB/transl.fl)