Bloomberg View: Straightening Out Cyprus

What the EU must do
Customers queue outside a Bank of Cyprus branch ahead of its opening for the first time in two weeks in Nicosia on March 28Photograph by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

The March 25 Cyprus bailout deal is a big improvement over the first botched attempt. It doesn’t repeat the error of breaching the guarantee on bank deposits up to €100,000 ($127,830). Instead, it restructures the two biggest banks and forces their creditors, including large depositors, to take huge losses.

Yet the euro area’s leaders must do a lot more to convince Europeans and the markets that they’ve drawn the right lessons from this debacle. They need to say why Cyprus is an exception and commit to integrating the euro area further so it’s less vulnerable to such crises. They’re failing on both points.