Financial services: Commission refers POLAND to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to implement EU rules on Deposit Guarantee Schemes

The Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Poland on 10 December 2015 requesting it to transpose the Directive. The deadline for the transposition of these rules into national law was 3 July 2015. As the legislative process in Poland is still ongoing and full transposition of the new rules has still not occurred, Poland is now being referred to the Court of Justice of the EU (the Court).

This Directive, which replaces the previous Directive 94/19/EC of 1994, improves the protection of savers' deposits in banks. The timely implementation of the Directive by Member States is an important step to create a safer and sounder financial sector in the wake of the financial crisis. Failure to implement means that the comprehensive improvements to the funding and functioning of deposit guarantee schemes are not brought into force in those countries. Non-implementation may also undermine the level playing field in the EU banking sector as it means that an important part of the Single Rulebook is missing in the Member States which have not enacted the DGSD. The Single Rulebook consists of a set of legislative texts with which all financial institutions (including approximately 8,300 banks) in the EU must comply. The same minimum standards now apply across the EU, which means that consumers and banks do not have to comply with 28 different sets of rules.

In cases of failure to transpose EU legislative directives into national law on time, the Commission may propose daily penalty payments until full transposition has taken place. The amount of such penalties is calculated in a way that takes into account the payment capacity, the duration and degree of seriousness of the infringement of the Member State concerned. The European Commission can decide to withdraw this case from the Court in the event that a Member State implements the EU rules in question.

Background:

The EU has harmonised deposit guarantee scheme rules since 1994. Since 2008, the European Commission has adopted a number of measures to ensure the stability of financial and banking services. The improved Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (DGSD) was adopted in summer 2014 to provide reinforced protection for depositors, with quicker pay-outs and improved information. Depositors will have a number of further advantages: interest will be taken into account when reimbursing deposits, loans cannot, in principle, be deducted from the amount to be reimbursed, and depositors at branches of banks in other Member States will not be referred to a DGS in a country whose language they do not speak.

More information:

• - 

  Frequently asked questions on Deposit Guarantee Schemes, see MEMO/14/296.

• - 

  On the key decisions of the May infringements package, please refer to the full MEMO/16/1823.

• - 

  General information on infringements proceedings in the areas of financial services.

• - 

  Information on the infringement procedures.

IP/16/1826

Press contacts:

• - 

  Vanessa MOCK (+32 2 295 61 94)
• - 

  Letizia LUPINI (+32 2 295 19 58)

General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email