The road ahead after de Larosière

Karel Lannoo, chief executive, Centre for European Policy Studies

The decisions taken by the European Finance Ministers on 9 June 2009, and subsequently adopted by the European Council on the 18-19 June, broadly implement the proposals on European financial supervision put forward by the de Larosière Committee and the European Commission, and also provide the necessary detail. From 2010 onwards, a new structure should be in place to ensure more integrated European macro- and micro-prudential oversight. The macroeconomic body – the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) – will be consultative in nature and will largely function within the context of the ESCB (European System of Central Banks). Hence its implementation should not be too problematic. The different functional authorities coordinating micro-prudential supervision will be established by the Council in the autumn, basically upgrading the existing Committees, but they will have a substantially increased workload, which raises important structural and organisational issues.