"As you know, we had legal advice from the Commission, as well from the Council looking for the issue. As there is legal basis, we can try focus on debates on the governance of the resolution authority, governance of the fund. Hopefully, we can make progress starting today," he said ahead of the Eurogroup's meeting in the Lithuanian capital.
The Dutch finance minister, who heads the group of eurozone finance ministers, said that he believes that a banking union could start functioning within a year.
"I think we made a lot of progress in strengthening our banks, which is an ongoing process, but also on the regulatory side. Especially, the banking union - we made tremendous progress. Hopefully, we will make even more progress before the European elections next year and we'll have a banking, a proper banking union to start, let's say, in October next year," he said.
