Europe benefits from EU financial supervision

As a consequence of the serious financial crisis three new EU authorities are to be established at the end of the year with the task of supervising banks, insurance companies and stock exchanges. This was agreed on Thursday among representatives of the EU Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the EU Commission. A sensible decision, the business paper De Tijd concludes: "This is a major step forward, even if the brunt of daily supervision still remains at a nation level. And that's good. A European supervisory body that was also charged with micro-level supervision of all the banks and insurance companies in the 27 member states would be an inefficient colossus. On the other hand, it's not a bad thing that in future there will be a European authority to keep an eye on national supervisory bodies and rap them on the knuckles when needed. ... That the member states are prepared to partially transfer their powers of financial supervision to a supranational body is an important victory for Europe. It will soon be two years since the bank crisis hit us with full force. Since then much progress has been made towards toughening supervision of the financial sector."

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