Europe finds itself in the midst of a debate on structural reform. Some of the contributions made during this debate would appear to be a knee-jerk reaction. This also applies to the idea of a so-called 'banking union', which was put forward recently. In my opinion, the test of such a comprehensive concept for Europe must also be whether it is compatible with the fundamental principles of European unification: subsidiarity, proportionality and unity in diversity. Abandoning these principles and leaving aside well-functioning decentralised structures would be too high a price to pay. In particular, it would be too high a price for the wrong objective – to bail out faltering banks abroad with the money of German savers.
In the opinion of the Savings Banks Finance Group [representing savings banks, landesbanken and regional building societies], the top priority must be to strengthen confidence, increase the stability of the European financial sector and to demand accountability from banks, specifically big banks. Last but not least, the questions relating to banking supervision, deposit protection schemes and crisis management options must also be addressed.