FRANKFURT, April 16 (Reuters) - European Banks are

calling on the European Union to designate them a critically

important "strategic" sector, warning that their competitiveness

and the bloc's future are at stake, according to a report

published on Tuesday.

The pitch by the European Banking Federation (EBF) leads a

list of 45 policy recommendations that the region's top banking

lobby is making ahead of European elections in June.

The body's president, Christian Sewing, last year urged that

banks be recognised as strategic when he called them a "key

factor for European sovereignty" in his role as Deutsche Bank's

chief executive.

But this is the first time that banks at the European level

are officially making the request for such a status.

"It is essential to acknowledge the vital and strategic role

of banks in Europe's transformation," Sewing said in a foreword

to the 51-page report.

Despite the new push by the financial sector, the European

Union does not publish a list of sectors it considers strategic.

Wim Mijs, CEO of the EBF, in a briefing with journalists to

present the report, said that over the past 20 years Europe had

"outsourced" its defence to the United States, its energy to

Russia and manufacturing to China, something he said required a

hard look at the region's strategic sectors.

The bulk of the EBF report addressed regulation and its wish

to streamline it.

Banking regulation got a major overhaul in the wake of the

global financial crisis, which both regulators and bankers say

made the industry more stable.

But banks now face "an excessive... and increasingly

over-reaching" legislation that has become "overwhelming", the

report said.

The lobby called for a review of current regulation to judge

how it affects not just stability, but also competitiveness and

growth.

Bankers have long warned about what they call

over-regulation, and European officials, including European

Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, have countered that

regulation must not be undermined.

"We are not asking for lowering standards," Mijs said.

"Our regulation suffers from death by good intentions. You

see that you over-complicate things."