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Michel Barnier, the EU commissioner for internal market and services, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that it was "urgent that we deliver this second pillar of the banking union, which the euro area needs for its stability".
EU leaders called last year for euro area countries to put in place joint oversight and crisis management of lenders in a bid to repair confidence in the solidity of the bloc's banking system. While governments have approved the project in principle, plans presented by Barnier in July to centralise decisions on how to resuscitate or wind down an imperiled bank have met staunch opposition from Germany, which argues that the proposed measures are illegal.
"I don’t exclude what German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble wants - that we could, with a later treaty change, improve and consolidate the system", Barnier said. But this shouldn’t prevent the bloc from pressing ahead rapidly under its current rulebook, he said. Barnier said that his plan would avoid a repeat of the prolonged haggling that surrounded the bailout and dismemberment of French-Belgian lender Dexia SA (DEXB) in 2011.
The plans for a single resolution system are the second plank of the banking union project. A deal on the first part - giving supervision powers to the European Central Bank - was reached earlier this year.