Thursday, December 8th 2011 - 06:55 UTC

Euro Day: EU leaders won’t leave Brussels summit until agreement is reached

Pessimistic comments from Germany and new figures exposing deepening stress among Europe's banks dented financial market hopes of a turning point in the Euro zone's debt crisis at a summit this week.

Central banker Mario Draghi emerging as an important figure of the puzzle

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel detailed their plan to amend the EU treaty to anchor stricter budget discipline in the Euro area in a letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on Wednesday.

Merkel also spoke by telephone with US President Barack Obama, agreeing on the need to find a lasting and credible solution to the crisis, the White House said.

The French finance minister said the leaders of France and Germany would not leave Friday's European Union summit until a “powerful” deal is reached to restore market trust and prevent the sovereign debt crisis spiralling out of control.

But while Paris voiced determination, a senior German official gave a downbeat assessment of prospects for an agreement in an apparent effort to jolt partners into accepting Berlin's terms and respecting its red lines.

“I have to say today, on Wednesday, that I am more pessimistic than last week about reaching an overall deal ... A lot of protagonists still have not understood how serious the situation is,” the official told a pre-summit briefing.

“My pessimism stems from the overall picture that I see at this point, in which institutions and member states will have to move on many points to make possible the new treaty rules that we are aiming for,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The euro slipped, share prices turned negative and safe-haven German bond futures rose after the official punctured investors' hopes of a crisis solution, although some diplomats played down his comments as pre-summit brinkmanship.

After several days of recovery, Italian and Spanish bond yields rose sharply as money fled the two most endangered Euro zone sovereigns for the relative safe haven of the region's strongest sovereign, Germany.

Euro zone sources said the ECB was closely involved in discussing plans for tighter Euro zone fiscal and economic integration before the summit, and Draghi would meet Merkel and Sarkozy in Brussels on Thursday evening.

Draghi signalled last week that a Euro zone “fiscal compact” could enable the ECB to act more forcefully. The sources said he wanted a firm commitment set in stone that Euro zone countries were moving towards a fiscal union before stepping up crisis-fighting measures.

The ECB governing council holds a crucial meeting on Thursday, before the EU summit, at which most economists expect it to cut interest rates to 1.0% from 1.25%, introduce longer-term liquidity tenders for banks and widen the collateral they can use to borrow from it.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's heightened the sense of crisis this week by warning it could cut credit ratings across the 17-nation currency bloc, including for its EFSF rescue fund, a move that would fundamentally weaken it.

 

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1 briton (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 02:32 pm Report abuse
EU leaders won’t leave Brussels summit until agreement is reached
They said that yesterday, and the week before, and the week before that,
5 days to save it, two weeks to save it, 3 months to save,
They waste billions and don’t even know what the hell they are saving,
except maybe their pockets .
the sooner it all collapses the better,
2 ElaineB (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 02:37 pm Report abuse
Lock them in a room with bread and water and don't let them out until they stop this pissing contest. Merkel just lectured everyone to leave their egos aside. *coughs*
3 Marcos Alejandro (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 04:16 pm Report abuse
Lock them in a room with bread and water and don't let them out until they decide to get the hell out of Malvinas, that will save London a lot of money.
4 stick up your junta (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 04:55 pm Report abuse
@3
change the fucking record
5 ed (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 06:05 pm Report abuse
Northern Ireland ,Scotland,Wales,England can't leave Brussels
becouse their each independences are not recognized yet.
6 yankeeboy (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 08:50 pm Report abuse
Thank goodness The UK kept the Pound! It looks like the Euro won't be around much longer.
7 ElaineB (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 09:05 pm Report abuse
I think the reasons the UK stayed out of the Euro are obvious now.
8 Rufus (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 10:18 pm Report abuse
Taking it to it's logical conclusion:- Lock them in a room with bread and water and don't let them out at all.
9 Fido Dido (#) Dec 08th, 2011 - 11:40 pm Report abuse
“Thank goodness The UK kept the Pound! It looks like the Euro won't be around much longer. ”

Only a tool believes that the Pound is also save. If it was (because it isn't)save, the private B.O.E. (Bank of England) would not keep it's interest rates close to zero interests for the crooks (banksters) and print like crazy. Again why do they print (similar like in the US)? They print to buy up the junk from the banks and put it on the balance sheet of the people (that's why national debt goes up up up up). This is similar as what happened in Argentina when they bailed out the (western) banks that collapsed Argentina with it's cronies in the government.
10 briton (#) Dec 09th, 2011 - 12:26 am Report abuse
Surely Argentina’s debts were her problem,
But either way, Argentina basically went bankrupt and started all over again,
Now im not in any way, saying that was right or wrong,
The point is [I think] that those who feel she was right to avoid payment by going bankrupt,
Are they suggesting, or proposing that the whole world just stop paying their debts and just go bankrupt,
[WHAT THEN WOULD HAPPEN ]
An interesting thought,
Any ideas,
.
11 Fido Dido (#) Dec 09th, 2011 - 05:35 am Report abuse
“Surely Argentina’s debts were her problem”

Yes and no. Yes for, in their good old days (late 90's) they realy believed they were the rich (with borrowed money without hearings from international banks and a scheme of pegging their peso to the dollar 1=1, that was done by advice by the same banksters). That majority of the people had no clue about that is understandable, because not everybody had the time or knowledge how business were handled by their government, though they should have done it, but again, that everybody pays attention 24 hours to their government only happens in a perfect nation, that doesn't exist anywhere on this planet (not even Switzerland, the so called richest nation that is stuck with junk/worthless derrivates (opss, they call it assets), that's why they bailed out UBS, Credit Suise and both are still in red/problem)

It's not the fault of the Argentine people, but it's the crooks (representatives) who accepted the loans, con the people with their lies (spin lies into the truth so it becomes reality, the truth), and by time took the debt from the banks (banks were bailed out, not the people, sounds familiar now?) and added it to their national debt. Happy birthday, here is your gift, oh and the people who had a dollar account or any account, they were frozen (bank holiday sounds familia?), took the dollars and gave them pesos and devalued the peso. Booom..finished.

This is what we now face here in the US and Europe. They the banks know we cannot pay of the debt they created from thin air, but want every dime and they blame it un us (you should not have shop so much and bought homes you could not afford), but in the good old days they (banks plus government leaders) “explained” that we can handle it and things will be fine, nothing can go wrong, because we are sophisticated and smart people are in charge. Now things are so bad, I say who gambled (the banks) should fail and the people should not starve for them (austerity measures)
12 ElaineB (#) Dec 09th, 2011 - 09:52 am Report abuse
As predicted they didn't really achieve very much. Cameron has refused to be part of a Eurozone caucus that will take away fiscal control from individual countries. He had no choice because the voting public have no appetite for more control going to Europe.

Another meeting will take place, and another, and another. Deadlines are set, reset and reset again. Meantime the world waits and watches. Markets are uncertain and economies are slowing down. Today China - their biggest export market is Europe - announced their concerns as orders were being cancelled and reduced. Their economy is slowing down.

This is not Europe's problem, it is affecting the world's economy.
13 Fido Dido (#) Dec 09th, 2011 - 04:36 pm Report abuse
This is not Europe's problem, it is affecting the world's economy.

Nobody said that no one is immune from this crisis. Once the crisis hit the bottom, whenever that is, or during the crisis (like in the past) there are opportunities for the nations that have their books in order, low have a strong domestic manufacturing and agriculture base (jobs that produce real goods) and a young/middle age population. We all know where the opportunities will be and it won't be in Europe. China will have it's yuan backed by gold and will have the title “reserve currency of the world” what will make their domestic market the strongest in the world what is good for their own people and will have a huge affect on their trading partners. The transfer of wealth is already accelerating and some leaders and elites from up north cannot stand it, though they have created it themself with their “neo liberal economic policies”. What we see now is simple. the business of growing economies (BRICS,MIT etc etc) is doing business with other nations, the bussiness of the US and their cronies in Europe used to be business but what is now fear and war and we ought to be against that and take back our country that is hijacked by intelligent psychopaths is business suits and name themself a politician and bankster.

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