EU finance ministers continued efforts to find a compromise on the issue of a European banking union as the European Parliament and Council remained divided regarding a Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for European banks. Presenting the results of the meeting in his capacity as council chair, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said the Greek EU Presidency welcomed the Council's willingness to give sufficient flexibility to explore alternative solutions with the European Parliament. He said that these be examined in detail at the next ECOFIN meeting on March 11 and stressed that finding a common ground, which would allow agreement within the current legislative period, was a matter of urgency for the Greek presidency.

Moreover, the ministers approved the conclusions on a) the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey, that outlines priority actions to be taken by member states in order to ensure more effective and better-coordinated policies for fostering sustainable economic growth, and b) the Alert Mechanism Report, which is the starting point of the EU’s annual Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure. The council also discussed the preparation of the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney, and adopted a recommendation to the European Parliament on the discharge to be given to the Commission for implementation of the EU’s general budget for 2012 and approved the conclusions on the Budget guidelines for 2015.

See also: ECOFIN Press Release & Greek EU Presidency Press Release (18.02)