Financial Times
July 20, 2011
José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, has warned Europe’s leaders that a failure to come to a deal on a second Greek bail-out within 24 hours would send shockwaves around the global economy.
Mr Barroso’s comments on Wednesday come amid growing evidence that European leaders were still at loggerheads over a deal, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy flying to Berlin to meet Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in an eleventh-hour effort to settle their differences.
According to a senior European official, Mr Sarkozy decided to travel to Berlin after a phone call between the two leaders on Tuesday failed to break the impasse over how to get private bondholders to shoulder some of the €115bn ($163bn) needed in a new bail-out.
In Berlin, a senior official said the two leaders planned to discuss “the options that are on the table, and as far as possible reach a common line”
“We are very confident that it will come to a good solution,” said Steffen Seibert, the German government spokesman. The two leaders were not seeking to dictate a final decision to the 15 other eurozone member states, he said, but added: “If France and Germany cannot agree, Europe does not move forward.”
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