BRUSSELS (AP) — European leaders reached agreement Thursday on creating a single supervisor for banks in the countries that use the euro that will be up and running sometime next year, German diplomats said.

The deal reached at a summit of European leaders in Brussels represents a compromise between the Germans and French, who had been tussling over how best shore up the region’s stricken banking system — one of the main causes of Europe’s debt crisis. In Ireland’s case, the government’s attempts to rescue failing banks forced it into a bailout. Some fear Spain could face that fate, too.

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