At a news conference with Germany's Wolfgang Schäuble, French finance minister Pierre Moscovici said agreement could be reached soon. "Work continues for a few more weeks to reach a definitive agreement, but France and Germany aim to reach the same objectives with the same calendar, the same method", he said.
Critical remarks from other countries painted a different picture. Sweden flagged what it believes to be a fundamental flaw in the plan -- that there is no acceptable way of allowing non-euro states to join the scheme on an equal footing with those using the currency. It raised the prospect of a laborious change to EU law to set up the system. "The ECB could be the supervisor but then we need to consider a treaty change", Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg told reporters. "Either you must change the treaty so it's clear that every member is treated equitably or you need to move it (supervision) outside of the ECB."
His concerns were echoed by Austria's finance minister, who said countries outside the euro that want to join the scheme needed to be put on a par with euro states. This will be difficult as bank supervision will be run by the ECB and it is answerable only to the 17 countries using the euro. "Non-euro members also want to participate and want to have equal participation procedures", Maria Fekter told peers in comments broadcast on television, adding: "It could also be a question if the treaty change would be the better solution".
Michel Barnier, the European Union official responsible for designing the new supervision law and negotiating its implementation, said although treaty changes were possible in the future they were not on the table now.
The European commissioner responsible for regulation also sought to play down talk of delay in reaching agreement on the framework beyond the year-end, a target suggested by EU leaders in June. "I think agreement in December is possible although it's difficult", he said.
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