The confusion and delay that surrounded decisions on the Cyprus assistance plan were not only due to Cypriot intransigence. Rather, they reveal a need to radically rethink Eurogroup and Troika working methods, argued Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs in Wednesday's debate with Commissioner Olli Rehn and ECB Executive Board member Jorg Asmussen.

Pressure to reveal how the Cyprus financial plans were hatched would continue, the chair of Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, said on Tuesday when she closed a debate with Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem that left various MEPs less than fully satisfied on the quality of the answers provided.

The European Commission's austerity focus was widely lambasted by centre-left MEPs at an Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee meeting with Commissioner Olli Rehn on Thursday, only a week after he last came in for strong criticism in Parliament's plenary chamber. But the centre right's lead MEP urged Mr Rehn to show more bravery and conviction amid growing signs that the Commission may to bow to anti-austerity campaigners.

MEPs quizzed European Central Bank Vice-President Vitor Constancio on what more can be done to help credit flow to businesses and households, whether austerity is the right recipe, ECB transparency and possible interest rate cuts at Wednesday's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee meeting on ECB activities in 2012.

Property buyers would be better informed about the costs and consequences of taking on a mortgage, better protected from market swings while the contract lasts and better protected if they cannot repay the loan, under a provisional deal struck by Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs and EU member state representatives on Monday. To become law, this deal must be approved by Parliament as a whole and endorsed by the member states.

La Banca centrale europea dovrebbe fare di più per garantire che i suoi prestiti a basso costo alle banche siano trasferiti all'economia reale e la stessa BCE deve diventare più trasparente e responsabile, in linea con il suo crescente ruolo, affermano i deputati in una risoluzione adottata mercoledì. Il giorno precedente, il Parlamento ha discusso il lavoro della BCE con il suo presidente Mario Draghi.

Dal 1° gennaio 2014, le banche dell'UE saranno più forti. La nuova legislazione approvata martedì dal Parlamento introduce un tetto ai bonus bancari per limitare l'assunzione di rischi speculativi, rafforza i requisiti patrimoniali, per aiutare le banche ad affrontare meglio le crisi, e la supervisione bancaria.

The EU Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Directive (CRD) aim to stabilise and strengthen the banking system by making banks set aside more and higher quality capital as a cushion against crises. The new rules should also foster a convergence of supervisory practices across the EU. Banks that are better able to withstand future crises should be more capable of financing investment and growth.

MEP Sharon Bowles, Chair of the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee welcomes the agreement on Cyprus, particularly the recognition that banks can fail and that the deposit guarantee principle must be upheld.

Investment fund managers' bonuses must be capped, their salaries must be linked to their funds' performance said Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs in a draft law voted on Thursday. Individual investors' money must also be better protected, they added.