Germany is open to closer European coordination to resolve the euro area's banking troubles as the government backs moves to deepen political and economic union, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

Schaeuble's backing for efforts to tighten banking cooperation, made in an interview published in today's Handelsblatt newspaper, follows comments by Chancellor Angela Merkel last night in which she said that systemic banks may need supervision at the European level.

Ratification of the fiscal pact locking in debt and deficit limits "is one step, but it's not yet sufficient," Merkel told reporters in Berlin before talks with European Commission head Jose Barroso. "So we will also talk about to what degree one has to bring the systemic banks under specific European supervision to keep national interests from playing too large a role."