At a conference organised by the German federation of savings banks and cooperative banks (BVR) on Thursday 3 July, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz opposed the completion of banking union in the euro area through the establishment of a European bank deposit insurance scheme (EDIS).
“Let me be very clear: we have discussed [deposit] insurance schemes in Europe for long enough. There is absolutely no reason to communitise systems that work at EU Member State level”, he declared. He praised the ‘institutional protection schemes’ (IPS) set up by the German cooperative banks, which intervene in the event of default by a member of the group. As a “private organisation”, this model “has proved its stability and smooth operation over many years”, according to Mr Merz.
The provisional European Parliament/EU Council agreement on the ‘CMDI’ legislative package designed to strengthen the management of a banking crisis is likely to relaunch discussions between Member States on the next steps leading to the completion of the banking union (see EUROPE 13668/10).
See Mr Merz’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/hpi (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)