Towards a Meaningful Prudential Supervision Dialogue in the Euro Area? A Study of the Interaction Between the European Parliament and the European Central Bank in the Single Supervisory Mechanism

In the context of the introduction of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) as part of the European Banking Union, the European Central Bank (ECB) has been assigned specific supervisory tasks relating to credit institutions established primarily in the euro area. One particularly remarkable feature of this new legislation, notably when compared with the monetary policy tasks of the ECB, is the introduction of an explicit accountability framework with a particular focus on the relationship between the ECB and the European Parliament. It is this relationship, and mainly the so-called supervisory dialogue, that form the focal point of this contribution, which offers an assessment of the legal framework, as well as of the actual practice in these first years of the existence of the SSM, against a clearly defined notion of accountability. With regard to the actual practice, the contribution focuses on the exchanges between the chair of the ECB's main decision-preparing body on SSM matters, i.e. the Supervisory Board, and the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.