Merkel and Sarkozy offer nothing new to solve eurocrisis
ALDE Leader Guy Verhofstadt
At a joint press conference in Paris on 5 December ahead of the EU summit, President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel attempted to present a united front for dealing with Europe's sovereign debt crisis.Guy Verhofstadt, Liberal and Democrat group leader in the European Parliament was not at all convinced:
"The pretence at unity of the French and German leaders disguises their deeper and persistent differences which are proving to be a major obstacle to a definitive solution to the eurozone's troubles.
"Basically they have just agreed a few symbolic measures; that eurozone leaders should meet every month instead of twice a year, that the ECJ can verify that Member States have properly introduced the 'golden rule' on balanced budgets (but not question actual budget planning) and an institutionalisation of the already agreed package on economic governance (6-pack) with its system of automatic sanctions."
"This is just their lowest common denominator and nothing like the comprehensive package for economic and fiscal union that is required to convince the markets that Europe is serious about tackling its long-term debt issues. Equally, the outright rejection of any system of debt mutualisation is just short-sighted and blinkered. The summit this Friday should have a free and open discussion of all the measures on the table to end this crisis as quickly as possible."
"The Franco-German engine of European integration appears to have run out of steam. I fear we are now just running inexorably into the buffers at the end of the track."
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