Brussels, 24/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - No major announcements destined to resolve the sovereign debt crisis were made at the mini-summit in Strasbourg on Thursday 24 November, which brought together the three main eurozone economies. Germany is still opposed to freeing the European Central Bank (ECB) for monetising eurozone debt. France promises joint proposals on economic government by the December summit. Italy confirms its aim to achieve budgetary balance by 2013. The three leaders are to meet again in Rome to pursue their discussion.
Angela Merkel said the ECB was “independent” and “eventual modifications to the treaties will not concern the duties of the ECB”. The German chancellor is opposed to any intervention by the ECB to massively buy up sovereign debt bonds from countries in difficulty in order to bring down borrowing costs. She deemed Eurobonds were “not needed and not appropriate”. In her view, the pooling of eurozone debts would send the “wrong signal to ignore those diverging interest rates because they are an indicator of where work still needs to be done”. On the other hand, Merkel said that those who do not keep to the Stability Pact must be held accountable. She added that this was not so in the past, “and we are paying the price today”. Germany recommends modification of the European treaties to specifically target the eurozone in order to establish a culture of fiscal stability and also promote economic, if not budgetary, convergence.
“We are all three aware of the gravity of the situation”, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, promising to do everything possible to support the euro. He called for more integration and economic convergence through amendment of the treaties as the “current situation is not satisfactory”. Nonetheless, he went on to consider, “if we do not all agree to amend the treaties, then we shall come to a different agreement”. The mini-summit in Strasbourg did not close the gap between the two largest eurozone economies over the role that the ECB should play. The French president admitted that “France has one culture, while Germany has another”. He went on to recommend silence on the matter in order to respect the Frankfurt Institution's independence.
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti is convinced that Italy must once more become “one of the driving forces for European integration”. To achieve this, Rome must, first and foremost, abide by its economic and budgetary commitments. Monti said he has been adamant about the fact that Italy must follow a rigorous, tight timetable to achieve the aim of consolidating public finance objectives, confirming the objective of budgetary balance in 2013. He also underlined the need to take the economic growth factor into account in this exercise. The former European commissioner said that Eurobonds should make a “positive contribution” given that budgetary union is achieved with “rules and mechanisms for applying these rules”. “Everything is possible within budgetary union”, he said. In favour of greater automaticity in the event of infringement of the Stability and Growth Pact, he said he had fought hard in 2003 for the European Commission to tackle the Council of the EU which, under Italian presidency, had closed its eyes to France and Germany's failure to comply with the Pact. In his view, that “was a huge error acknowledged by all”. (MB/transl.jl)