February 15, 2011
Top European Union officials signaled Monday that the bloc's new bailout fund for troubled countries will be able to lend €500 billion ($677 billion)—nearly twice the current pool of money—but cautioned that agreement would only come in concert with accord on a constellation of related economic issues.
On those, there were few signs of progress at a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers Monday.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, left, with Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker at Monday's meeting in Brussels.
That is setting up a marathon six weeks of negotiation before a self-imposed late-March deadline for the EU to deliver a "comprehensive" response to a debt crisis it can't find a way to shake.
"If there isn't agreement on everything, there's agreement on nothing," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg premier and head of the group of the 17 nations that use the euro. There are a lot of things on which they need to agree.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment