The European Banking Authority ("EBA") has published a speech given by its chairman, Andrea Enria which discusses the proposal the EBA has put forward to deal with the impact of the sovereign debt crisis on EU banking markets and the concept of the EU Single Rulebook. With respect to the EU Single Rulebook, Enria envisages that key technical rules should be defined at the EU level and adopted through EU Regulations, so that they are directly applicable to all financial institutions operating in the Single Market, without any need for national implementation or possibility for additional layers of local rules. He argues that the need for change stems from the fact that although the bulk of EU financial regulations originate from Directives, much flexibility has been left which has been fully exploited by Member States. Under the umbrella of the same EU legislation a very diverse regulatory environment has flourished. Enria states that he believes that the key litmus test for the EU Single Rulebook will be in two areas: the definition of capital and the implementation of the new liquidity standards. A third essential hurdle will be the implementation of the new Directive on crisis management and resolution, which the Commission should issue in the near future.