Brussels, 26/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Once again, the talks between EU Council of Ministers and European Parliament representatives ended on Tuesday 25 February without any significant progress towards setting up a single bank resolution mechanism (SRM).
This is because the ministers refused to grant the Greek Presidency a revised negotiating mandate so that it could enter compromise talks with the Parliament. The MEPs reacted sharply to the suggestions made by the Presidency after talks by national experts on the guidelines laid down by the ECOFIN Council (see EUROPE 11021). A Council source said the Parliament was adopting an increasingly problematic attitude.
Chastened, the MEPs have decided to work on their negotiating position, based on the Ferreira report approved by the Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, and to add improvements that have arisen during the inter-institutional talks - such as aligning the legislation with the BRRD Directive harmonising national bank resolution schemes and the draft regulation on SRM. The revised document will be submitted to the member states' representatives ahead of the 12 March ECOFIN Council and will be the basis of a negotiating position that the Parliament hopes to outline in first reading in April if there is no progress in the meantime, thus closing the door to formal adoption of the draft legislation during the current European Parliament.
Corien Wortmann-Kool (EPP, the Netherlands) said she was not expecting that to happen because the door will remain open to the Council until the last minute. Despite progress on technical aspects, the usual concerns remain, she explained, like the way the ministers are determined to pursue the intergovernmental route to setting up a single resolution fund and introduce a decision-making procedure that gives member states the final say. (MB)