The Eurogroup opens today in Dublin, the meeting between the finance ministers of the European Union which will also continue tomorrow. Above all, they will be at the center of the meeting the rescue of Cyprus and the banking union project which, after so many proclamations, needs to take shape as soon as possible, despite the fact that the negotiations in this regard promise to be complicated.
As far as Cyprus is concerned, however, Nicosia must in fact find another 6 billion euros, to add to the 7 billion already foreseen and the 10 of international aid: the size of the island's bailout has increased after the audit of the accounts carried out by the EU Commission. The first steps it will have to take are the restructuring of old debts, a further fiscal crackdown and the sale of gold reserves. Everything will then have to be examined by the EU and in particular by Germany.
In the meantime, however, they are expected two more years of recession for the island, which in the next two years will see its GDP contract by 12,5%, while banking operations have resumed, albeit with some limitations.
The other major issue on the table, as mentioned, is that of the European banking union. On the table is the proposal to transfer banking supervision from member states to the European Central Bank. At the end of March, Germany blocked an agreement that seemed to have been made, raising four points that still need to be clarified, among which the request for a clear separation between monetary policy and credit supervision stands out.
To undermine the idea of a banking union, they are the internal drives towards an ever greater national discretion: the Cyprus case, as well as other similar cases, according to some European leaders, "justifies the choice of some countries to go their own way when it comes to protecting their investors or account holders". The serious risk, therefore, is that of a very inhomogeneous community project, if not even meaningless.
Attachments: The Guardian article
