FINANCIAL SERVICES : BANK RESOLUTION: PARLIAMENT UPS PRESSURE.

The three-way talks between the European Parliament, the Greek EU Presidency (on behalf of the Council) and the Commission, scheduled for 5 February, on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for restructuring banks in crisis look set to be tense. MEPs are threatening to approve, during the plenary session in Strasbourg on 6 February, the position adopted in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) unless they obtain a commitment from the Council that it softens its position. For now, however, the chances of the Greek Presidency being able to provide such a commitment are slim, a source explained. In any case, a more flexible negotiating mandate will not be obtained from the Council before the next political meeting. Instead, the situation will play out at the next meeting of the member states' finance ministers, on 18 February.

If it takes place, this EP vote will not constitute first-reading adoption (see Europolitics 4799). The EP wants to put pressure on the EU28 - but without going so far as to play all its cards.

Since the start of negotiations, the two institutions have stuck fast to their positions - although they must agree in March in order for the text to be adopted before the end of the legislature in April. The EP's hackles are raised once more because the Council has decided to establish the single resolution fund (SRF, which supports the restructuring of banks in crisis) via an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) and not via a regulation creating the SRM as proposed by the Commission, in order to satisfy Germany (the Council's common position on the SRM). This will exclude MEPs from the legislative process. Obviously, they are opposed to this, and are hoping to restrict the IGA as far as possible. The EP is also very critical of the decision making process the Council has requested for the development and adoption of resolution plans (in the regulation), which MEPs say is too complex and politicised.

GERMAN SOCIALISTS

"The German government undermined the Commission's original proposal on the SRM in favour of intergovernmental structures," the shadow rapporteur for the Greens, Sven Giegold (Germany) insisted. Several sources do not hesitate to accuse Berlin of leading the Council's position while asking about the responsibility of the other...