28/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Belgium and Slovenia requested to fully apply European rules on bank resolutions. On Thursday 20 April, the European Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion to Belgium and Slovenia calling on the countries to fully implement the Bank Recovering Resolution Directive 'BRRD' (2014/59) , which provides a framework for national bank recovery and resolution systems. These rules have been applicable since January 2015 and introduce a "bail-in" mechanism where shareholders and creditors of the banks pay their share of the costs in the event of bank failures. In addition to these two countries, Poland has also failed to totally respect the BRRD directive and was taken to the European Court of Justice about the matter in October 2015 (EUROPE 11416). (MB)