New proposals for more integrated European bank supervision and region-wide bank deposit guarantees may be launched by the autumn, the head of the European Commission said Wednesday.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was "indispensable" that the euro zone deepened its economic integration but warned that this shouldn't lead to a breakdown of the European Union's single market for products and services and a permanent split among the EU's 27 members.
"By autumn, the commission could be ready to come with key proposals to introduce more integrated banking supervision and common deposit guarantees and resolution funds," Mr. Barroso said in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
The idea of closer banking ties gained steam this month when ECB President Mario Draghi raised the issue in testimony to the parliament.
Barroso said it was "essential to proceed...with all member states," and he acknowledged deeper fiscal and banking integration would likely require changes to the EU's basic treaties.
But in a nod to growing concerns in the U.K. about a more comprehensive euro-zone banking union, Barroso said that "opt-outs" the U.K. and others have from certain EU rules "must be taken into account."
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will present a report at June's EU leaders' summits setting out ideas for greater fiscal and banking integration.
Barroso also said members of the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations would likely point "a finger at" Europe "as the source of the world's problems, including their own," at their meeting next week.
"It is always easier to talk about the problems of others and distracting from one's own. But in the end, we all have challenges," he said.
He urged countries not to use negotiations over the EU's multiyear budget for 2014-20 as an effort to try and starve the EU's funds.
He said EU spending plays a key role in boosting long-term investment expenditure in a number of EU countries and could play a key role in supporting regional growth.
Efforts to shave 100 billion euros ($125 billion) off the EU budget over the period would be a "great mistake."
Member countries must agree on the multiyear budget by end-2012.