By Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – European Union leaders reinforced their commitment on Thursday to the completion of the bloc’s bank union. However, they did not set a date. This highlights the deep differences between countries on how to do it.

Now, 19 of the EU’s member countries share the Euro. However, non-euro zone bloc members who are not part of the EU’s financial union can still join. It is intended to increase the stability and resilience of the euro-zone’s banking system to crisis situations.

All major banks of the euro area have one supervisor, the European Central Bank. The single resolution authority is responsible for bringing down the failing banks.

The missing element is a deposit guarantee system that ensures that all banks in the Euro zone would pay their clients any deposits above 100,000 euro ($113,000.00). This would be a safeguard that could prevent bank run even during a crisis.

Although calls to end the banking union would require the establishment of a deposit guarantee program, eurozone finance ministers are not making much progress. The leaders requested them only to develop a plan that would get them there. They did not want to find the right solution immediately.

Problem is, Germany needs to make sure that banks in the euro area are less at risk of collapse before any deposit schemes can be established.

It means that their bad debts and exposure to single issuesrs, like the government in the country they work for, are reduced so they won’t go bankrupt if the sovereign to which they most closely are exposed cannot redeem its bonds.

Italy is a country that borrows a large amount from local banks, so it’s difficult to accept limits on how many bonds a sovereign a bank can hold. Italy is not alone in its objections.

($1 = 0.8826 euro)