LJUBLJANA (MNI) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi
stressed the importance of ensuring the independence of the central
bank’s monetary policy role should it assume the additional
responsibility of supervising banks across the 17 member Eurozone, as
proposed by EU lawmakers.

Speaking at the ECB’s monthly press conference, held in the
Slovenian capital as part of the bank’s tradition of holding it meetings
away from its Frankfurt headquarters twice a year, Draghi said that
there were “very important concerns” about the separation of
responsibility with the ECB and that these were being addressed with
“internal organization.”

Should EU lawmakers in Brussels and Eurozone leaders agree to
confer the responsibility of bank supervision on the ECB, the central
bank would “have to make sure that we have an organization that defacto
assures the separation of monetary policy and supervision,” he said.
“This can be done by fully delegating the task,” he said.

In order to ensure a separation between the two roles, the European
Commission in September called for the creation of an ECB Supervisory
Board under a chairman with a five-year, non-renewable term of office.
Under the proposal, now being examined by EU lawmakers, the Supervisory
Board will also be composed of a mix of ECB representatives and
officials from national supervisors.

While the proposal envisages the ECB having ultimate supervisory
power over all matters related to financial supervisors, national
authorities would be involved in preparing and implementing measures and
day-to-day verifications on the ground.

In his introductory remarks Draghi said that the creation of the
single supervisory mechanism for banks was “one of the fundamental
pillars of a financial union and one of the main building blocks towards
a genuine economic and monetary union.”

He said the ECB will formally issue a legal opinion on the
proposal examining the “clear and robust separation between supervisory
decision-making and monetary policy; appropriate accountability
channels; a decentralisation of tasks within the Eurosystem; an
effective supervisory framework ensuring coherent oversight of the euro
area banking system; and full compatibility with the single market
framework, including the role and prerogatives of the European Banking
Authority.”

–Brussels Newsroom, +324-952-28374; pkoh@mni-news.com
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