German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have said they will meet next week to discuss the Euro zone debt crisis. Their first meeting of 2012 comes after all EU countries except the UK agreed to work together on a new treaty to stabilise the Euro zone.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged in a grave New Year's message to find ways to pull the economy out of stagnation in the four months left before a presidential election and vowed no further public spending cuts.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country is likely to face new jolts from the Euro zone debt crisis amid rumors it could lose its triple-A credit rating.
“Uruguay does not figure in the list of countries with which France has financial difficulties”, said a special envoy from President Nicholas Sarkozy who visited Montevideo this week, thus ending the controversy triggered at the end of the early November G8 Cannes summit when Uruguay was described as a “fiscal haven”.
Germany and France stepped up a drive on Monday for intrusive powers to reject national budgets in the Euro zone that breach EU rules, as a market rout of European debt eased temporarily on hopes of outside help for Italy and Spain.
Germany and France again on Wednesday over whether the European Central Bank should take bolder steps to stem the Euro zone debt crisis, with Chancellor Angela Merkel issuing one of her starkest warnings yet against fiddling with the central bank's strict inflation-fighting mandate.
A rise in interest rates on French government debt and weaker growth prospects could be negative for the outlook on France's credit rating, Moody's warned in a report released Monday, adding to pressure on European debt markets.
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.
A top Uruguayan official said the country has the support of Brazil regarding the controversy triggered when President Nicholas Sarkozy as host and ‘rapporteur’ of the recent G20 summit named Uruguay in the list of the world’s most notorious fiscal havens.
Uruguay’s President, José Mujica said on Monday that Argentina had nothing to do with the comment made by France’s leader Nicolas Sarkozy indicating that Uruguay was a “tax haven.”