Bulgarian Parliament passes bill to implement EU bank recovery directive
Bulgarian MPs have passed at second reading a bill implementing the provisions of EU’s the bank recovery and resolution directive, two months after the European Commission gave Sofia a forceful reminder on the topic by stepping up infringement proceedings for failure to do so on time.
The directive went into force in June 2014, with national governments given until the end of last year to pass new laws that adopted the provisions of the directive. In Bulgaria’s case, the timeframe covered the last months of a hobbled ruling axis in the National Assembly that routinely struggled to get the necessary quorum to hold sittings and then a period of three months with no Parliament, as the legislature was disbanded to pave way for snap elections.
On May 28, in announcing that it was pursuing infringement proceedings against 11 member states, Bulgaria among them, the Commission described the directive as the “centrepiece of the EU’s Banking Union that was put in place to create a safer and sounder financial sector in the wake of the financial crisis”, which provided national authorities with “the necessary tools and powers to mitigate and manage the distress or failure of banks or large investment firms.”
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(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)