October 22, 2011
European finance ministers said on Saturday that they were near a deal to strengthen capital reserves for their troubled banks — a central part of a package of measures meant to stem Europe’s worsening debt crisis.
On the second day of talks in Brussels, the ministers also said that holders of Greek bonds would have to take much bigger losses than the 21 percent originally agreed to in July, though one bank official said that despite the ministers’ consensus, no agreement was near on write-offs that could reach as high as 60 percent.
The ministers also reported that France and Germany had made progress on a third issue, how to increase the firepower of a rescue fund for the euro zone. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, along with other European leaders, were to meet later Saturday to continue the negotiations.
“I believe that now we have reached a more realistic view of the situation in Greece and that we will provide the necessary means to be able to protect the euro,” Mrs. Merkel said as she arrived at a gathering of European center-right leaders outside Brussels. The Sunday meeting would not bring final decisions, she said, adding that the leaders would take definitive steps at a second meeting on Wednesday.
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