The "informal" meetings of the European Council's legislative bodies such as that of the finance ministers' ECOFIN were a good idea in their day, but is that day drawing to a close?
The political equivalent of a company’s 'offsite' weekend sounds good but the increasing role of Europe in national economies and financial markets means that media attention is now focused on every utterance. Informality has gone – except for the absence of formal minutes! As Eurogroup Chairman Dijsselbloem put it, on the key issues around Banking Union, “cannon shots were exchanged but there was no debate on the solutions”...
However, the most significant smoke signals for the UK were the suggestions that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) could be revised to permit it to fund non-euro area states that needed to recapitalise their banks. That might tip the balance for some of these states to encourage them to join the Banking Union if they felt they could get a pay-out from their 'insurance policy’ if disaster struck.
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This article was written for British Influence - link to original article.
Graham Bishop - Consultant on EU Integration - Financial, Budgetary, Economic, Political
Rolling Blog
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