December 7, 2011
Germany on Wednesday insisted that its European partners must undertake the politically fraught process of changing European Union treaties, or at least accepting a binding new eurozone accord, to bring stability to the single currency and restore the confidence of investors.
On the eve of a European summit in Brussels to stem the eurozone crisis, a senior German government official dismissed the suggestion by Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president, that tougher fiscal discipline could be enforced without a full-blown treaty overhaul.
“A number of actors have not understood the seriousness of the situation,” the German official said, warning that a “bad compromise” of small steps or “little tricks” would not meet the expectations of the public or the financial markets.
The tough German line came as Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, published a joint letter to Mr Van Rompuy, calling for sweeping measures to enforce fiscal discipline, including near-automatic sanctions for countries with excess debt or deficits.
“We propose that those new rules and commitments should be enshrined in the European treaties,” they said, urging an immediate decision to go ahead at the eurozone and EU summits on Thursday and Friday.
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