Banking Union in Nine Questions

This statement is prepared as a contribution to the Interparliamentary Conference's third session, "Completing the Banking Union and Financing the Real Economy." Its aim is to help form a collectively shared assessment of the European Union's banking union project, its implementation so far, its possible future impact, and further policy initiatives that may be considered to complete or complement it. To facilitate reading, it is structured in a question-and-answer format, with three questions each on the banking union's past, present, and future.

Given the statement's focus, the topical issues of EU bank structure reform and capital markets union are covered only superficially and primarily in their relationship with banking union under question 9. The other issue on the session's agenda, microcredit, is not covered in this statement.