The debate they held at their informal meeting in Bratislava on Friday 9 September revealed that the European finance ministers cannot yet agree on whether the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) should have its own budgetary capacity(see EUROPE 11618).
Rumour had it, furthermore, that the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has asked the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU to put the discussions on hold. "There was a disagreement about the timing of the discussion", the...