investmentGATEWAY

This memo will be updated regularly to reflect latest developments. This memo is meant as information tool: it is not a legal text

The financial crisis highlighted the need for better regulation and supervision of the financial sector. It is the reason why the European Commission has since 2010 proposed nearly 30 sets of rules to ensure all financial actors, products and markets are appropriately regulated and efficiently supervised. These rules are the basic framework for all 28 Member States of the EU and underpin a properly functioning single market for financial services.

The ensuing eurozone crisis added an extra dimension, highlighting the need for a better governed and deeper economic and monetary union for a single currency to work in the long run. In 2011, the crisis took a new turn with the eurozone debt crisis: it highlighted the potentially vicious circle between banks and sovereigns.

For that circle to be broken, a more robust financial sector is not enough. In particular for countries which share a currency, a deeper more integrated approach is necessary - basically ensuring centralised delivery of the rules for all 28 Member States.

This is why EU Heads of State and Government committed to a banking union in June 2012. The vision was further developed in the European Commission's blueprint for economic and monetary union in November 2012 (MEMO/12/909). Heads of State and Government have agreed the legislative work underpinning the banking union should be completed before the end of this legislature which thus requires important milestones to be met before the end of 2013. Thanks to hard work and a spirit of compromise demonstrated by both Member States and the European Parliament, Europe is well on the way to live up to its commitments.

This memo sets out what has been done so far to create a robust financial framework for all 28 Member States and where we stand in building the banking union. The banking union is specifically for countries which share the euro, although it is also open to all non-euro EU Member States who want to join

See Council statement http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/139613.pdf