De Guindos calls for more Europe: “Replacing directives with regulations brings efficiency”

Brussels – Wasted time and fragmentation don’t help, so a European Union anchored more in regulations than in directives is a welcome development. The recipe for competitiveness proposed by the Vice-President of the European Central Bank, Luis de Guindos, calls for fewer individual states and more European Union. Patriotic and sovereigntist forces will not like it, but, as he argued during the hearing on simplification in the Committee on Economic Affairs of the European Parliament, “replacing the current system of directives with a system of regulations would bring efficiency,” and proceeding in this direction “can help” simplify and improve the functioning of the EU.

“Regulations come into force immediately, while directives must be transposed,” de Guindos noted. This is no small difference: Member States may delay transposing regulations, or do so only partially. In addition to incurring infringement proceedings that the European Commission may initiate against the government, correcting errors or making up for delays leads to fragmentation and inconsistency, which does not help the European Union create the single, functioning market that is needed, as highlighted in the Draghi report.

However, the European Central Bank’s number two acknowledges that “the best way to simplify matters is through a genuine banking union,” which he laments is still lacking. “There is still no European deposit guarantee scheme, and this creates difficulties,” he admits. The European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS). Revived forcefully ten years ago, when the ECB was still led by Draghi, the EDIS project has encountered hesitation, divisions, and skepticism among member states. The reminders issued by the Lagarde‑led ECB have done little: banking integration and mutualization remain out of reach because wealthy northern countries still don’t trust the banks of poorer southern countries.