The European Banking Union and the Economic and Monetary Union - A re-telling of Cinderella with an uncertain happy ever after?

The chapter reconstructs the European Banking Union (EBU) as an unprecedented effort to create a new supranational institutional framework for banking supervision and resolution. The chapter explores the main reasons behind the creation of the EBU were high tension in financial markets and the lack of harmonised and uniform rules to deal with on-going prudential supervision and restructuring of ailing entities. The paper critically looks at the main institutional aspects stemming from the EBU from an institutional perspective. In particular, the chapter examines the relationship between the internal market and the EMU, the impact of the EBU on the EU principles of solidarity and responsibility, the manner in which the EBU has affected the institutional balance of the EU and finally the division of powers between the Union and the Member States. The author concludes that the EBU represents an unprecedented contribution to the establishment of the internal market and the establishment of the EMU whose currency is the euro, which are still subject to review and improvements in future reforms.