EU may water down SRM powers after member state concerns

The Single Resolution Mechanism proposed by European financial services chief, Michel Barnier, faces having it’s powers reduced after concerns that it may impinge on member states budgets, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg. The 28 states are looking into whether transferring key decision making responsibilities from the SRM to member finance ministers would lessen the perceived potential threat to sovereignty. Another measure would be to offer states a veto over SRM board decisions.

The Germans (unsurprisingly) have been warning that the EU plans be overhauled with finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble saying that the proposals are on shaky legal grounds.

The SRM needs a weighted majority approval by national governments and the EU parliament before it can take effect.

Here you have Europe in a nutshell. We’ve come off one of the biggest financial crises ever and they’ve been bleating from the rooftops about protecting the system in the future. We’ve had Banking union, re-drawn regulations, SRM’s, ESM’s, OMT’s EFSF’s, SSM’s, M&M’s, you name it they’ve proposed it, yet here we are 5 years down the road and all we’ve had is talk with very little action. And now we start to get calls for those great plans to be diluted, rescheduled and reworked. As always there’s a massive amount of hot air from Europe, but not much action.