The MEPs involved in the negotiations on the ‘CMDI’ legislative package aimed at strengthening the framework for managing a banking crisis (see EUROPE 1314/7) want to move quickly in their deliberations so as to arrive at a position for the European Parliament in early December, with a view to concluding negotiations with the Council of the Union before the end of the current legislative term.
“We should not rewrite the rules”, said Luděk Niedermayer (EPP, Czech), the European Parliament’s co-rapporteur, on Wednesday 20 September. He supported the overall objective of the package, namely to extend the scope of resolution to medium-sized European banks by mobilising, where appropriate, national bank deposit guarantee schemes (DGS).
In his view, “the central element” of the proposal is the rationalisation of the hierarchy of creditors affected in the event of a banking crisis by creating a single category of depositors including individuals, SMEs, large companies and public authorities and entities.
For the other two co-rapporteurs, Pedro Marques (S&D, Portuguese) and Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA, Spanish), the legislative initiative should pave the way for the eventual creation of a European deposit insurance scheme (EDIS), the final component of banking union in the euro area. They warned against a possible weakening of the bail-in principle, under which a bank resolution is first financed by the creditors of a failing bank, if the DGS schemes are called in.
Mr Marques, like Marco Zanni (ID, Italian), stressed the importance of not weakening the European framework governing state aid to the banking sector in the event of a financial crisis. In the same vein, Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French), speaking on behalf of her compatriot Gilles Boyer, warned against a proposal that would increase “moral hazard”.
With regard to the revision of the hierarchy of creditors, Mr Urtasun did not take a favourable view of the proposal to place the savings of individuals on an equal footing with those of multinationals, up to a maximum of €100,000.
The draft reports are due by 23 October, and the amendments by 26 October at the latest. A further debate in the ECON Committee is scheduled for 27 November, before a vote in the week commencing 4 December. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)