On September 12, the European Commission published its legislative proposals to establish a single supervisory mechanism (SSM) for eurozone banks. An accompanying communication sets out the ‘roadmap’ for achieving the banking union.

There are two legislative proposals, both of which the Commission has called on the Council of the EU and the European Parliament to adopt by the end of the year:

• a regulation to create the SSM, which tasks the European Central Bank with prudential regulation policy and provides for non-euro countries to join voluntarily; and
• a regulation to adapt the existing European Banking Authority Regulation (1093/2010) to ensure the preservation of the integrity of the single market and balanced decision making by the European Banking Authority.