The decision comes amid an increasingly tense debate between member states and EU officials over whether the capital buffers of Europe’s big banks should be bolstered in light of the sovereign debt crisis.

“Until the summer, my intention was to introduce the new regime at the beginning of next year, assuming that the markets would have normalised by then,” he told the Eurofi conference in Wroclaw.

“However, considering current market conditions, it would not be safe to introduce the new rules too soon.”

EU officials significantly relaxed the rules that govern state aid in late 2008, permitting governments to pump billions of euros worth of soft loans and guarantees into failing banks and companies.

But the less stringent rules were initially set to expire at the end of 2010, triggering a debate in Brussels that has led to return to a more normal state aid regime being delayed twice.

Mr Almunia’s decision to shelve the new framework for the financial sector is a nod to the violent swings in markets that have seen some French bank shares more than halve in value in a matter of weeks.

By maintaining the existing rules, governments will continue to have considerable leeway in choosing tools to prop-up financial institutions that are facing difficulties.

However even under the more relaxed regime, the European Commission has nonetheless demanded banks in receipt of state aid to significantly restructure, sell off assets or stop certain activities.

The Commission has taken a decision on restructuring some 24 banks to date, while decisions are awaiting on a further 19 banks.

Mr Almunia insisted that he wanted to tighten the policy on financial sector aid as soon as the conditions were more permissive.

“Let me be clear. By definition, the crisis regime for the control of state aid in the financial sector put in place in 2008-09 must come to an end – and sooner would be better than later,” he said.

“When the markets stabilise and the new rules are phased in, we will use the new regime to tighten the control of the public support given to banks in distress and of its impact on their competitors.”