THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Directive 2014/59/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms and amending Council Directive 82/891/EEC, and Directives 2001/24/EC, 2002/47/EC, 2004/25/EC, 2005/56/EC, 2007/36/EC, 2011/35/EU, 2012/30/EU and 2013/36/EU, and Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010 and (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council [OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 190.], and, in particular, Article 44(11) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) In the context of resolution, it is essential that resolution authorities have sufficient guidance to ensure that the bail-in tool is applied properly and consistently across the Union. The principle that the bail-in tool may be applied to all liabilities unless they are explicitly excluded under Article 44(2) of Directive 2014/59/EU is overarching. For this reason, no liabilities should be presumed to be always excluded from bail-in unless they fall within the list of liabilities explicitly excluded under that provision. Indeed, already at the stage of resolution planning and resolvability assessment, the resolution authority should aim at minimising exclusions from bail-in with a view to respecting the principle that shareholders and creditor will absorb the costs of the resolution.