A European banking union with joint liability cannot be put off much longer.

If the idea of a European banking union is serious, now is the moment to advance it.

Ever closer union means an EU that moves ineluctably from economic and monetary union to banking union, then to fiscal union, and finally to political union.

But the European Banking Federation has dug in its heels, describing the recommendations as completely unnecessary.

Hollande, backed by Spain and Italy, accomplished a small step in that direction at June s European Union summit, which finally endorsed the idea of a banking union.

Once these proposals are implemented, the banking union will be complete.

The final question is what such a eurozone banking union would mean for the single financial market, and especially for EU countries that are outside the single currency.

Now the euro crisis is forcing EU leaders to address institutional changes namely the creation of banking, fiscal, and political union that they have long deferred.

In the case of the banking union, they plan to use Article 127(6) of the Lisbon Treaty which allows the European Council to grant authority to the ECB to perform specific tasks concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of certain financial institutions in the Union.

The emerging banking union is not only the first step toward a European fiscal union it is also the final step toward completing the European common market.

The European Central Bank has been more thoughtful, though no less enthusiastic, arguing that a banking union should have three objectives.

This heightened uncertainty could spill over to economic activity in the rest of the European Union through adverse feedback loops between sovereign risk and the banking system.

So the likely outcome is that, in the EU s time honored fashion, the banking union will be constructed using existing powers, finessing the sovereignty question, and avoiding any reference to public opinion.

But the European Union collectively has roughly 30 of the votes at the IMF, and can effectively veto a more forceful approach to the European banking system.

The banking system would not survive this without help, so the EU s bailout activities should be refocused accordingly.

They are, as listed in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors.

Monetary union without banking union will not work, and a workable banking union requires at least some elements of fiscal and political union.

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At the same time, the eurozone crisis remains unresolved, despite the ECB s bold actions and talk of a banking, fiscal, economic, and political union.

The institutions of the European Union are the seven principal decision making bodies of the European Union.

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The motivations of those who advocate a banking union differ markedly.

But Europe s policymakers claim to be making progress toward a so called banking union, which means collective banking supervision, rather than a merger of banks themselves.

Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

But Europe s policymakers claim to be making progress toward a so called banking union, which means collective banking supervision, rather than a merger of banks themselves. In September, the European Commission announced a plan to make the European Central Bank the supervisor of all 6,000 of Europe s banks.

But the European Banking Federation has dug in its heels, describing the recommendations as completely unnecessary. The European Commission asked for comments, and its formal position is that it is considering them along with the reports.

But the difficult negotiations that led to the agreement eclipsed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy s recent report, Towards a Genuine Economic and Monetary Union, which calls for unity far beyond a banking union.

That happened because European bank regulation is still characterized by a race to the bottom.

And a fragmented European banking system remains one of the weakest links in the regional daisy chain.

Would the European Union survive? The answer depends on what one means by the EU.

(e) Consider the need for further review of the international arrangement, in order that it continue to be dynamic and adapt to evolving conditions, and consider ways of helping member States to participate actively in such a review.

Banking union, Europe s leaders agreed, means creating a single supervisory authority.

The end 2013 deadline for implementation of the banking union is a long way off.

The European Union will then follow with a mission of its own, and we will support the EU in this endeavor.

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