On Tuesday, EU finance ministers were presented with a plan to complete the bloc’s long-delayed banking union, in the hopes that Germany would abandon its resistance.

Ireland’s finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, the Eurogroup’s chairman, was set to invite ministers to review the fundamental principles underlying an EU-wide deposit protection program.

If passed, this would be the final step in a sequence of steps taken since the 2008 financial crisis to give the European Central Bank authority of Europe’s largest institutions.

“If we don’t do it now, it is very difficult to see when there will be a better moment,” a senior EU official told reporters, speaking on condition on anonymity.

“We would probably have to wait quite sometime before we can try again,” the official added.

If passed, the reform would be a watershed moment in the quest for greater European unification.

Northern countries, such as Germany, have long been hesitant to join the system, fearing that they would be forced to foot the price for their less financially responsible neighbors.

The reform is expected to be opposed by Italy’s heavily indebted government, as it would prevent the country’s fragile banks from keeping themselves afloat by making large purchases of Italian government debt.

To break the impasse, Donohoe will ask ministers on Tuesday to support a two-phase plan that would take years to implement.

“Having a resilient and effective banking sector that serves citizens and businesses is critical to Europe’s credibility,” Donohoe wrote in the Financial Times in March.

“In recent years, the debates on banking unions have become intractable. But I believe the phasing will unlock progress,” he added.

Depositors in Europe are currently insured for up to 100,000 euros, thanks to funding from the EU’s national governments.

However, many EU countries are viewed as vulnerable to financial shocks such as those experienced by Ireland, Spain, and Greece during the 2008 Lehman Brothers crisis.

EU ministers are set to haggle over the details at a meeting in June after formally hearing the plan on Tuesday.

If given the green light, the European Commission would draught a legal proposal by the end of the year, which would also require the European Parliament’s approval.