Financial Times
Editorial
October 5, 2011
The European flag is fluttering a little higher today; the yellow stars look a bit brighter; the strains of Beethoven’s 9th seem just a tad more stirring. For after what some have harshly called a period of terrified under-activity the EU has pounced into action.
The impact was immediate and heartening. World stock markets soared after a meeting of European finance ministers resolved to “do something” about the eurozone financial crisis. In Luxembourg ministers emerged from an all-day crisis meeting unified and certain that things had now become “really serious” and that “firm action” could be counted upon. After some months of disagreement the 17 nations are as one. The spirit of unity is now so strong that France and Germany have for example “agreed to differ”.
Indeed, so great is their new strength of purpose that in a move, the audacity of which stunned onlookers, the leaders have now asked officials from the European Commission in Brussels to “come up with some ideas” as to what the something they might do could be. One veteran Brussels watcher observed that you could tell it was serious because the ministers had told officials to “see if they could work something up” within the next few weeks – the kind of fierce deadline that sends a real sense of purpose through the organisation.
It is understood that ministers have narrowed the range of options to preventing a Greek default; not preventing a Greek default; delaying a Greek default for a while and then permitting it; and letting Greece default but giving serious thought to stopping any of the other eurozone outliers from taking the same path.
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