The European Commission may have to set up a unified system for cross-border payments in euros itself as banks have been too slow to do the job, Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has said.
"In principle, I prefer co-operation but we cannot wait forever," Mr McCreevy said in an interview with Germany's Handelsblattnewspaper.
The European Central Bank and commission have asked that the unified system be created by January 1st, 2008, allowing people and companies to transfer money throughout the euro area from their bank accounts as easily and safely as national payments.
In addition, national payments systems are supposed to migrate to the pan-European one by the end of 2010.
Meeting those tight deadlines means European banks and national governments need to agree quickly on how to proceed.
"They [the banks] are too slow in creating the single euro payments area," McCreevy said. "Creating a single payments area in Europe is certainly not as difficult as putting a man on the moon," he added.
The commission will decide over the summer what its next moves will be, but it does not expect to have its own draft rules drawn up before autumn, the paper said.