When this week’s EU summit ends today, it will be in the form of a euro summit, where Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) and other leaders from the countries outside the eurozone can also participate.
Everything happens of course in the light of the latest banking crisis, after the problems for Silicon Valley Bank in the US and Swiss Credit Suisse.
However, the Irishman Paschal Donohoe, who chairs the meetings of the finance ministers of the euro countries, is trying to calm any European concerns.
— I have great confidence in the liquidity and resilience that our banks have built up. We have sufficient reserves and the ability to guarantee the stability of our banking system at the moment. It depends on the political decisions that have been made and that have worked – but we must never be satisfied, says Donohoe on his way to the summit in Brussels.
Completing the banking union
Both he and the EU leaders therefore call for continued work to complete the EU’s banking union. Despite the fact that the issue was at the top of the agenda for many years in the EU context, not least in the eurozone, the union’s “third leg” – a common deposit guarantee – is still missing.
However, Donohoe refers to promises within the eurozone from last summer to continue working.
— Last summer we agreed on further steps forward for the banking union. Now it’s time for us to implement them. I expect, and look forward to, proposals from the commission shortly, says Donohoe – which is supported by, for example, the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas.
— We learned our lesson in 2009, or whenever there was a banking crisis. We’ve made the system much more resilient. But now we have to discuss the banking union today, including a common security system for deposits, so that there are guarantees that if something happens, people don’t lose their deposits, says Kallas on his way into the meeting.
Increase demand
Paschal Donohoe also wants to see a return to stricter budget discipline after the years with the corona crisis and the concerns surrounding the Russian war in Ukraine.
— The budget policy needs to be slowly changed. We must continue to support society, especially the most vulnerable, but we strongly urge that measures that increase demand within our economies and permanently increase borrowing are no longer justified, says Donohoe in Brussels.