According to an article published today in the Wall Street Journal:
''European Union finance ministers are expected to give their final approval for a new banking supervisor for the euro zone Tuesday, three European officials said Monday, allowing the European Central Bank to formally start preparations for its new role as the currency union's chief banking policeman.
The U.K. last week held up the final sign-off on legislation transferring the power to supervise banks in the euro zone to the ECB—further delaying one of the central elements of the bloc's response to the financial crisis. British officials said they were worried that handing euro-zone banking supervision to the ECB would allow the 17 euro-zone countries to dominate decision making in the European Banking Authority, the supervisor for all 28 EU countries.
''European Union finance ministers are expected to give their final approval for a new banking supervisor for the euro zone Tuesday, three European officials said Monday, allowing the European Central Bank to formally start preparations for its new role as the currency union's chief banking policeman.
The U.K. last week held up the final sign-off on legislation transferring the power to supervise banks in the euro zone to the ECB—further delaying one of the central elements of the bloc's response to the financial crisis. British officials said they were worried that handing euro-zone banking supervision to the ECB would allow the 17 euro-zone countries to dominate decision making in the European Banking Authority, the supervisor for all 28 EU countries.
The legislation already stipulated that all decisions in the EBA would have to be made by a so-called "double majority"—a majority of both euro and non-euro countries—until the number of EU countries outside the currency bloc has fallen to four.
But the U.K. feared that future banking legislation could nevertheless lead to an earlier change in the EBA voting rules.
To counter those concerns, EU finance ministers at their meeting in Luxembourg Tuesday will approve a declaration that reaffirms their previous commitment to leave EBA voting rules untouched, said the three officials. The decision to add the declaration was taken by all EU ambassadors, including the U.K. representative, in Brussels Monday morning''.
