Merkel will remain firm

While the Eurozone finance ministers discuss today in Brussels among other things a leverage of the euro bailout fund, the EFSF, pressure is mounting on Germany to mutualise the debts of the Eurozone by means of euro bonds or new powers for the ECB. But the German government will stick firmly to its stance, Jean Quatremer predicts in his bog Coulisses de Bruxelles: "Like Molière's doctors, Angela Merkel believes that a bout of blood-letting in public finances along with the threat of a good lashing will get the ailing euro back on its feet. For the rest, the German chancellor wants neither financial solidarity among the Eurozone states - be it in the form of  euro bonds or unlimited powers of intervention for the European Central Bank - nor federalism that goes beyond a reinforcement of budget discipline. ... One must hope that the markets will share the chancellor's convictions. They would no doubt have desired a bit more than a return to the Treaty of Maastricht."

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