Germany to Consider European Commission Banking Union Idea

Every time the euro crisis begins to intensify, a new idea for solving it seems to start bouncing around European capitals. This week, talk is focused on the concept of creating a European banking authority to keep watch on those financial institutions that are too big to fail.

And with Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso having discussed the idea over veal cutlets and white asparagus in Berlin on Monday, it seems likely that it will figure prominently on the agenda of the European Union summit scheduled for later this month.

"We will also talk about the extent to which we have to put systemically important banks under a specifically European oversight so that national interests don't play too large of a role," Merkel said prior to her working dinner. "Those are mid-term goals."

The German chancellor also said that the European fiscal pact, which she foisted upon the EU in early March in order to improve budgetary discipline across the bloc, is just one step toward further euro-zone integration. "We need more Europe in the euro zone, not less Europe," she said.

Read more: Germany to Consider European Commission Banking Union Idea - SPIEGEL ONLINE