In the first episode of the new Backstage series on ‘The Sound of Economics’, Bruegel senior fellow Nicolas Véron takes time out from the Bruegel Annual Meetings to discuss the immediate future of European banking and capital markets union with Jörg Kukies, state secretary at the German ministry of finance.

The euro-area reform agenda hopes to prevent the repetition of problems that arose during the crisis at the beginning of this decade – to provide better protection for taxpayers and depositors and to avoid any perception of privilege for the banks of one country over those of another. Although there appears to be consensus on the necessity of completing banking union, the question remains open as to which elements are still missing. 

On the matter of capital markets union (CMU), though the current European Commission has given great emphasis to progressing with the project, we are still quite far from consensus on the exact shape that a more integrated supervisory framework should take.

This discussion gets into the details of the immediate challenges and the particular sticking points in negotiations over banking and capital markets union.

For further reading, consider the [Policy Contribution on making a reality of Europe’s capital markets union](http://bruegel.org/2018/04/making-a-reality-of-europes-capital-markets-union/), co-written by Nicolas Véron, André Sapir and Guntram Wolff. Meanwhile, in a previous edition of the Director’s Cut podcast, Nicolas Véron discusses [the importance of developing deposit insurance as a part](http://bruegel.org/2018/04/directors-cut-developing-deposit-insurance-in-europe/) of Europe’s broader banking union aspirations.