The European Banking Union:
its Impact on the EU and its Member States, and on Accountability Standards
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship hosted by Sciences Po Paris (Law School)
Sept. 2020 – April 2022
Summary of the project
This project aimed to examine the consequences of the recent creation of the European Banking Union (EBU) within the European Union.
Taking France, Germany and Italy as representative case studies – while Bulgaria and Sweden serve as points of comparison -, it analysed the impact that the creation of the EBU has had on the institutional balance at national and European levels. It also examined this impact from a multilevel perspective, assessing whether accountability is sufficiently guaranteed or whether any gaps have emerged.
Background
The economic and financial crisis that hit Europe a decade ago showed that the rules in force in the European Union (EU) could not cope with a banking and debt crisis appropriately. To tackle this problem, the European Banking Union (EBU) was established (2013), leading to the EU gaining competences in bank supervision (Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM)) and bank resolution (Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM)). Both the SSM and the SRM operate under responsible EU bodies (the European Central Bank (ECB) and an EU agency, the Single Resolution Board (SRB), respectively), although they exercise these mandates in cooperation with Member States’ (MS) authorities (National Competent Authorities (NCAs) and National Resolution Authorities (NRAs)), which have retained important powers. EBU membership is mandatory for Eurozone MS but open to all MS. Other EU-wide initiatives, such as the creation of the European Banking Authority (EBA), complement the EBU, as do inter-governmental agreements (Single Resolution Fund and, soon, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) as a backstop). Because of all these reforms, EU and MS institutional systems have been modified considerably, and the resulting multi-level institutional framework is particularly complex.
Research Questions
IMPACTEBU examined the following Research Questions:
– How has the creation of the EBU affected the governance structure and the institutional balance at EU and MS levels?
– How do both levels interact, and is administrative, democratic and judicial accountability sufficiently guaranteed?
– Beyond this, how can these developments inform the on-going discussions on the completion of the EBU?
IMPACTEBU’s First Workshop on European financial integration and EU Member States: The impact of the Banking Union and beyond – 4 and 5 October 2021
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 895841.
