Press Release: Economic and Financial Affairs Council (continuation), Brussels, 18 December 2013

Main results of the Council:

The Council agreed a general approach on a proposed single resolution board and a single fund for the resolution of banks.

The compromise consists of a draft regulation on the single resolution mechanism (SRM), and a decision by euro area member states committing them to negotiate, by 1 March 2014, an intergovernmental agreement on the functioning of the single resolution fund.

Negotiations with the European Parliament will now start, with the aim of agreeing the regulation on the SRM at first reading before the end of the Parliament's current legislature (May 2014).

Ministers also adopted a statement on the design of a backstop to the single resolution fund.

The SRM will form one of the key elements of Europe's banking union, along with the single supervisory mechanism (SSM) that entered into force last month. It will cover all countries participating in the SSM, namely the euro area member states and those non-eurozone countries that decide to join.

Creation of a banking union is essential to overcoming market fragmentation and breaking the link between sovereigns and banks.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Council agrees general approach on Single Resolution Mechanism http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-council-agrees-general-approach-on-single-resolution-mechanism/

ESO: Background Information: Economic and Financial Affairs Council, Brussels, 10 December 2013 / Ministers edge toward bank resolution deal http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-economic-and-financial-affairs-council-brussels-10-december-2013-ministers-edge-toward-bank-resolution-deal/

European Commission: RAPID: Memo, MEMO/13/1186: Commissioner Michel Barnier's remarks at the ECOFIN Council press conference http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-1186_en.pdf

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