On December 6, 2017, the European Commission published a Communication on further steps towards completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union. The Commission is proposing several initiatives. First, the Commission is proposing a regulation to establish a European Monetary Fund. The EMF would replace the existing European Stability Mechanism and would act as a backstop to the Single Resolution Fund. Any support that the EMF provided to the SRF would need to be fully repaid by the Single Resolution Board from its own resources, including contributions from the industry. There are also proposals on new budgetary instruments for a stable euro area within the EU framework, changes to the Common Provisions Regulation, proposals to strengthen the Structural Reform Support Programme and a proposal to establish a European Minister of Economy and Finance. The Communication is supplemented by a proposed roadmap for implementing these steps over the next 18 months. The proposed roadmap indicates the dates by which certain of the Commission's proposed financial services legislation would be finalized. The risk-reduction package (amendments to the Capital Requirements framework and the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive) would be finalized by mid-2018 and the Capital Markets Union legislative initiatives, including the review of the European Supervisory Authorities and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, would be finalized by mid-2019.
The Commission's Communication is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/com_821_0_0.pdf .
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