At the end of the first day of the summit of the 27 in Brussels, the Italian premier Mario Monti rejected the German proposal for a "super commissioner" to oversee the public finances of the Eurozone countries. “New mechanisms or super commissioners do not seem necessary – he said -. President Barroso clarified that the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs already has special powers within the Commission”.
In Monti's opinion, the powers of the current commissioner "exceed those often mythologized by the competition commissioner". A first day, that of the summit, which saw France, Italy and European leaders bend the German resistance on banking supervision, initially planned for next January XNUMX, on which, however, the usual compromise in a European sauce was found. Angela Merkel has also managed to postpone the start of the direct recapitalization of the banks in difficulty by the ESM bailout fund until the supervision is truly operational. And it will be the finance ministers of the Eurogroup who will "define the criteria" on the basis of which the banks will be able to request aid.
As for the banking union, by 31 December the Council and the European Parliament will have to agree on the legislative text: full operation will arrive when the process is completed and the ECB is equipped. For Van Rompuy and Barroso the very fact that "a certain date" has been written within which to define "the legislative framework" with which to launch the single supervision by the ECB, which was missing in the June agreement, is sufficient to speak of an "important step forward" in the construction of the first pillar of the banking union.
Both Prime Minister Mario Monti and French President Francois Hollande are satisfied and together they have formed a useful axis to overcome German hesitations. At the end of the summit, the Prime Minister appears relieved: above all because, he explains, Europe has been able to decide despite the markets, at least for the moment, not putting governments under excessive pressure. It is true, as the professor himself acknowledges, that it is not possible to say exactly when the banks in difficulty can be directly recapitalised, starting with the Spanish ones. “But the markets – assures Monti - shouldn't be too disappointed because they didn't expect immediate operations”.
Madrid, however, does not seem to think so: Spanish diplomatic sources make it clear that the government of Mariano Rajoy could renounce aid to its credit institutions precisely because it would arrive too late and risk having too onerous conditions.
