Brussels, 27/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - Of the nine countries singled out by the European Commission, only Luxembourg will miss the 3 November deadline for lodging ratification instruments for the treaty establishing part of the single resolution fund (SRFF), the financial arm of Banking Union in the eurozone.
Unlike the transposition process of the BRRD directive harmonising national bank restructuring and resolution schemes, the Commission does not have the same ways of applying pressure on the member states to get them to ratify the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) upon which the SRF is partly based (see EUROPE 11428). In a letter to the nine countries (Belgium, Italy, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia and Ireland), Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker pointed out the importance of ratifying the IGA for the credibility of Banking Union.
The Commission remains confident that the single resolution fund will be operational in January 2016, which would require member states representing 90% of weighted votes within the single resolution mechanism to have ratified the IGA. Since the sending of Juncker's letter at the start of the week, Lithuania, Ireland and Slovenia have lodged their ratification instruments, explained a Commission spokeswoman on Friday 27 November, adding that the Italian and Maltese parliaments have passed their national measures and Belgium and Greece are expected to do so within the deadline. Luxembourg is the only member state that has not communicated its plans to the Commission, explained the spokeswoman. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)