The leaders of Britain and Germany David Cameron and Angela Merkel acknowledged differences over the Euro zone crisis but stressed they have the same plan for European growth. The prime minister met the German chancellor on Friday in Berlin to discuss the Euro zone crisis, and Iran and Syria.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Friday won a final parliamentary confidence vote granting full power to his new government after pledging to spur growth and reduce debt in the euro-region’s third-largest economy.
Greece's new government took a first step on Friday towards meeting terms of an international bailout needed to avoid bankruptcy, submitting a budget bill that foresees no new austerity measures next year as long as reforms are enacted.
European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told Euro zone governments on Friday to act fast to get their rescue fund up and running, expressing exasperation at their lack of progress in response to an escalating debt crisis.
Greek police clashed with anti-austerity protesters and Italy announced sweeping reforms in response to a European debt crisis that on Thursday pushed borrowing costs for France and Spain sharply higher.
Greece and holders of its debt hope to agree on a proposal to halve its privately held debt within weeks, both sides said on Thursday, raising hopes that a key pillar of Greece's 130 billion Euros bailout is still on track.
New Italian PM Mario Monti's government of technocrats passed its first test, winning a vote of confidence in the senate late Thursday. As expected, the government won the vote in the upper house of parliament easily, by 281 votes to 25.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated Thursday her opposition to a greater role for the European Central Bank in helping to solve the Euro zone debt crisis, saying political action was required.
Moody’s ratings agency decided on Thursday to surprisingly downgrade the rating of ten German public-sector banks. This is the first time Europe’s largest economy in the region, which keeps the Euro zone afloat, is hit.
Uruguay received a huge political boost from Mexico (the same it was denied from its Mercosur partners under influence from Argentina) in its dispute with the recent G20 summit which through spokesperson French president Nicholas Sarkozy described Uruguay as a ‘fiscal haven’.