The EU has put the seal on its banking union, the bloc’s flagship reform to address its financial crisis and the most ambitious integration project since the creation of the single currency 14 years ago.
The agreement, the climax of a two-year drive to underpin the euro, will ensure eurozone governments are no longer sole masters of their big national banks. After marathon talks stretching until dawn, the European parliament and EU states finally settled terms for the unified system to handle crises.
Lenders will be policed by the European Central Bank, the EU’s top bank supervisor, and wound down by a central authority – if necessary against the wishes of its home state – using a €55bn rescue fund.