The Quest for Financial Stability and Democracy in the Banking Union: Promoting Institutional Transformation and Regulatory Evolution Through Unconventional Means

In the context of the new legislation establishing a banking union in the EU, some reporting and democratic accountability duties have been established for the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Single Resolution Board (SRB), essentially to the benefit of the European Parliament and of national Parliaments, as well as of the Council of the EU. These democratic tools reflect in their conception and first applicative praxis those existing for the ECB and can be considered a first attempt to counterweight the marginalisation of the democratically elected bodies in the adoption of responses to the financial and economic crisis. Being it conceived as an esthetic operation or not, and notwithstanding their mild pervasive power, these democratic tools can play a role in strengthening the legitimacy of the SSM and SRB and their actual capacity to make a contribution to preserving financial stability in the EU.