(Vatican Radio) The European Union, after months of negotiations, agreed on Thursday
to create a single supervisor for their banks. `'Piece by piece, brick by brick,
the banking union will be built on this first fundamental step,'' Those were the
words of EU Commissioner Michel Barnier as it was announced on Thursday that European
nations had agreed on a Eurozone banking union.
The deal was struck at dawn
by finance ministers ahead just ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.
The agreement
will make the European Central Bank or ECB the supervisor for banks in the 17 EU countries
that use the euro and any other country in the union that wants to opt in.
Under
the deal the ECB has the power financially sanction banks that don’t follow rules.
It also paves the way for eurozone rescue funds to come to the aid of banks in trouble.
In addition, banks with more than 30billion euro in assets will be placed
under the oversight of the European Central Bank.
The deal still has to be
approved by parliament. Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report