Eurozone finance ministers meet amid deep Franco-German divisions

Eurozone finance ministers meet amid deep Franco-German divisions

Eurozone finance ministers were meeting here Friday to flesh out a package dealing with the euro zone crisis amid divisions between France and German over how to boost the firepower of the bailout fund.

The ministers would also discuss recapitalizing banks and a second package of financial assistance for Greece, according to agenda.

France has argued that the most effective way of leveraging it is to turn it into a bank which would use funding from the European Central Bank (ECB), but both the ECB and Germany are strongly opposed to this proposal.

In reinforcing the position of Germany, the country's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said before the meeting that "it is clear that we will stick to the agreed guarantees and that we will stick to the situation as it is in the treaty that the central bank is not available for state financing."

However, Spain's economy minister Elena Salgado would rather the ECB play a bigger role in solving the debt crisis by scaling up the rescue fund, namely European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

"In an ideal world it would be good if the ECB played a more active role, but in the area of what is possible and immediate, we also have to consider other possibilities," Salgado told reporters on arriving at the meeting site.

Against a backdrop of the ongoing fierce debates, Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Junker painted a more divided picture.

"There is, and in the German media you sometimes hear that, not only a problem between Germany and France. Why do people think it's enough for Germany and France to agree? But we have to deal with 17 governments and 17 states and 17 parliaments," Junker said.

Junker went so far as to provide the possibility of a second euro zone summit next Wednesday. "I would have preferred if we hadn't needed two attempts, but to concentrate fully on Sunday on a complete solution. We will see how far we get," he said.

Echoing Junker, Finish finance minister Jutta Urpilainen also foresaw a prolonged and difficult meeting, saying that "I think the situation in Europe is very difficult and I assume that our meeting tonight will also be difficult and the meeting will be long."

Editor: yan

English.news.cn   2011-10-22 00:00:31 FeedbackPrintRSS
BRUSSELS, Oct. 21 (Xinhua)