Optimism for final agreement on the banking consolidation

The Greek Presidency will ask today’s ECOFIN if not for a new mandate at least for flexibility in the negotiations with the European Parliament in order to close the outstanding issues of the single bank consolidation mechanism, ECOFIN president Yannis Stournaras said coming to the meeting.

"We want everybody in the whole process, this is what’s important," he said and expressed the hope that there will be some agreement on the banking consolidation in the next ECOFIN.

Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said there is still a gap in the positions, as the European Parliament is very critical to the agreement reached by the Council last December. He added, however, that there is still time to reach an agreement but there will be no compromising solution before March.

French Finance minister Pierre Moscovici said there is already an agreement that should form the basis of discussions and yesterday was a first exchange of views and discussions that will continue today with an aim to strengthen and simplify the process of mutualisation and lending capacity. He lastly argued that France is a country that facilitates decision-making and wants an ambitious bank consolidation.