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Mr Moscovici, who met with officials on Thursday in Washington, said last month's European summit marked "huge progress" in addressing the eurozone's troubles. "We made our first steps toward integration—a banking union, fiscal union, budgetary union and further on political union", he said. "But I understand, of course, that everybody is looking at the implementation and wondering, is it fast enough?"
European leaders agreed in late June to unify their bank supervision, with a plan due by this fall, as a step towards calming markets and supporting struggling eurozone members. Once a single bank supervisor is in place, the continent's rescue fund could recapitalise banks directly, including those in Spain, without requiring each government to boost its debt burden.
"We are on the right path and on the right rhythm", Mr Moscovici said. "We want the banking supervision to happen fast in order to help us to recapitalise the banks directly, which is clearly necessary."