MNI BRIEF:Eurogroup Head Aims At June Bank Union Workplan Deal

Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe is doubling down on plans for a European Banking Union and aims to win political agreement on a work plan at the June EU leaders’ summit, an EU official said, noting the issue is no less important despite current events.

Despite well-known objections from Germany to EU Deposit Insurance and from countries like Italy to diversifying their banks’ sovereign bond exposures, the official said that a “we have a fairly clear view of what an eventual landing zone looks like.”

The same official said that some parts of the plan could hopefully be concluded before the expiry of the current Commission and EU Parliament’s mandate in 2024, hoping that the plan would be to make progress in phases. The move to EDIS could start with liquidity support at the European level before moving gradually in a second stage to a loss-sharing EDIS. “That’s still some way off and we need further political decisions for that,” he accepted.