Spain on Monday formally requested Euro zone rescue loans to recapitalise its debt-laden banks as the Euro and shares fell on investor scepticism about this week's EU summit.
The German government and opposition reached on Thursday a deal that will allow parliament to approve the European Stability Mechanism, ESM, next week, but Germany's top court may delay the rescue fund's start date, saying it needed time to study the treaty.
Spain's medium-term borrowing costs spiralled to a Euro-era record on Thursday and independent auditors said Spanish banks may need up to 62 billion Euros in extra capital, to be filled mostly by a Euro zone bailout.
Spain made a calm but classic contribution before the United Nations Decolonization Committee (C24) last week defending territorial integrity arguments but also warning the Committee not to de-list Gibraltar without sticking to the current UN criteria.
Spain is scared to test its “feeble claims” in Court, whether in respect of Gibraltar’s undisputable right to self determination or its undisputable waters. That was the charge made by Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo on Friday before the United Nations Committee of 24 as he challenged Madrid to take these issues to the appropriate international courts.
Economics Nobel prize (2011) Thomas Sargent admitted feeling “ashamed” when some officials from the US government make recommendations to Europe, Spain and other countries on what policies they should adopt to climb out of the current crisis.
Britain’s Armed Forces Minister, Nick Harvey, said the Royal Navy would “deter and challenge” any incursion by Spanish state vessels into British waters around the Rock. Minister Harvey was responding to questions from Labour MPs in the House of Commons about recent incursions by Spanish Guardia Civil vessels.
The plan to lend money to Spain to heal some of its banks may not work because the government and the country's lenders will in effect be propping each other up, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo said over the weekend that the solution to the fishing dispute was separate to any discussion on the sovereignty of Gibraltar or its waters.
The future of the Euro may be determined in the coming weeks, as Greek voters decide whether to honour the country’s international bailout and create a first test for Spain’s newly built 100 billion-Euro banking firewall.