Tough negotiations are looming as the European Commission on Wednesday stepped up the pace for overhauling Europe’s patchy system for supervising banks and insurers in spite of UK wariness about ceding binding authority to non-national bodies.

Top EU officials said they hoped to win broad political support for the reforms when EU leaders meet next month, and then bring forward detailed legislation in the “early autumn”. “It will be now or never. If we cannot reform the financial sector and financial supervision when we have a real crisis, when will we reform it?” said Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president.