According to Bono, a real breakthrough has been achieved in the fight against corruption. The rock-star-turned-human-rights-activist was led to such enthusiasm by the EU passing new transparency regulations on April 10, 2013. The new laws stipulate that European companies that are active in the oil, mining and logging industries have to report any payment of more than EUR 100,000 that they have made to foreign governments or government agencies, even if this was in the form of taxes, royalties or other fees.

How should one imagine the planned EU banking union? Will there be one or several united or merged banks in Europe forming a genuine union? Definitely not. Banking union means something different, namely the building and operating of an integrated banking system, such as the one that exists in the USA. If a local bank in a US state experiences huge losses and/or becomes insolvent – i.e. it cannot refund its depositors –, in the process threatening the entire banking system, it is a natural occurrence there for federal institutions to intervene.

Remember the famous saying of George Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire? He once said during the euro crisis that the euro is an “omelette”. He meant that even if the common currency area has a number of systemic flaws that have been revealed during the crisis, it is hard or even impossible to abandon the euro and for members to return to their respective national currencies. Now it seems that Europe as a whole will stay with this omelette, and will not try to put the eggs back in their shells.