Third, the euro area needs to press ahead with constructing a genuine Banking Union. A first and important step has been made with the decision to create the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the responsibility for which was assigned to the ECB.
Political agreement by the ECOFIN Council and the European Parliament was reached on a legislative package in March, and technical agreement is expected very soon, so that national parliamentary proceedings can start, which should be concluded by the summer.