German-style bailout fund

The finance ministers of the Eurozone countries on Monday agreed to endow the planned European Stability Mechanism (ESM) with 500 billion euros as of 2013. As far as the left-liberal daily La Repubblica is concerned this represents a minimal raise for the fund hardly worth mentioning, which is exactly what Germany wanted: "The decision seems to be a new victory for the harsh course pushed by Germany. In recent weeks and months, several European government representatives had called for the fund to be raised considerably, with Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reyners going as far as to propose a trillion euros. But Berlin has stubbornly resisted all steps to raise guarantees for less disciplined countries, arguing that distributing the burden of European debt equally could lower the incentive to consolidate their budgets."

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