Germany and France agree common position on debt crisis

[Gerald]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have hammered out a common position on the euro debt crisis.

A statement by the French president's office said agreement had been reached after seven hours of talks in Berlin.

It comes ahead of a crunch meeting of eurozone leaders to resolve the Greek debt crisis and prevent further contagion to other eurozone economies.

Details of the deal have not yet been released.

But there are indications that a new tax on Europe's banks to help fund any new aid packages may not be part of the deal.

Arriving at the summit, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, played down the bank tax idea.

"I do not think there will be an agreement on that subject," he said.

Germany had previously insisted that private lenders to Greece should be forced to take losses as part of any further rescue deal for Athens.

But this had been opposed by France and the European Central Bank, which fear it could spark a Europe-wide banking crisis, push Spain and possibly Italy into trouble, and even jeopardise the solvency of the ECB itself.

Meanwhile, new figures from Markit's PMI survey show that the eurozone's private sector grew at its weakest pace in almost two years in July, recording a score of 50.8, down from 53.3 in June. Any score above 50 indicates growth.

"The eurozone recovery lost almost all of its momentum in July," said Markit's chief economist Chris Williamson.

Also on Thursday, Spain was forced to pay a higher rate of interest to borrow money from international investors. Madrid had to offer a yield of 5.9% on 10-year bonds, up from 5.4% at a similar auction last month, in order to raise 1.8bn euros ($2.6bn; £1.6bn).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14229717


Note: 21 July 2011 Last updated at 10:05 GMT

[Osmium Steele]

Germany and France agree common position on debt crisis

Bent over, grabbing the ankles.

[Skybird]

Once again the Germans allowed to get pulled over the table (=bamboozled)by Paris, with a super-mega-hyper-stupid Merkel once again having a billions of words of why her acting was "without alternative" no doubt (her most favourite phrase by far: "alternativlos").

German governments traditionally act very stupid on EU levels and EU issues, they consider it to be giving evidence of how far they have improved since the Nazi era. Hardly any other EU nations cares so little for the personell iut sends to brussel, no other EU member seems to sends third and fourth line names only instead of trying to make its real weight count. Of course this serves as a big encouragement for EU officials and netto receiving nations to demand even more from Germany - always.

Greek commentators and guests in German TV talkshows meanwhile complain about the Germans being too direct and being too harsh, and protesters paint Swastikas on German embassies in Greece.

No spine in German politicians. And no brains, no competence.

And no honesty of course. But that goes without separate mentioning anyway, right?

BTW, by the standards of the original Maastricht criterions and the stability pact, Germany today would have no chance to become a member of the Euro! It would fail on all criterions there were. But still they tell us the Euro is stronger and more stable and more vlauable than the D-Mark ever was! And while the Swiss Franken and Swedish Kronen are booming and showing their strength despite being "isolated" currencies, they still try to tell us that only the euro guarantees stability and any nation returning to its former currency before the Euro would not financially survive, since it's currency would be unable to withstand the pressure.

I take personal offence from being constantly assumed totally dumb, deaf, blind and braindead by our politicians. To hell with that rotten pack.

[Gerald]

Can only agree with previous speakers ... not very practical solutions,