Markets put EU under pressure

The US rating agency Moody's lowered Italy's credit rating from A3 to Baa2 on Friday, meaning the country is now just two notches above junk status. For the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita it is clear that the measures adopted by the EU summit two weeks ago have failed to take effect and that the Union cannot go on as it has: "There will be no radical reforms [of the EU] because huge differences exist between individual states, for example between France and Germany and Southern Europe. Germany will never agree to the debts of individual countries being shared by all, because that would increase its own liabilities. Nor does Germany want the ECB to become a money press for the euro. ... But now more is needed than bailout packages, stimulus measures or banks that are directed by the EU: we need structural changes and reforms of our economy, which is no match for the Asian competition. Without new taxation systems, without a flexible job market and without a rise in worker productivity, nothing is going to change."

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