Pocos resultados y mucho desacuerdo en cumbre informal UE
Genevieve Signoret & Patrick Signoret
Como anticipábamos, la cumbre informal de líderes europeos del miércoles rindió pocos resultados inmediatos y ningún acuerdo sobre bonos conjuntos. Sí se pidió a las instituciones europeas que prepararan propuestas (a entregar en la cumbre formal a finales de junio) sobre un esquema europeo de garantías de depósitos bancarios –potencialmente necesario para prevenir corridas bancarias– y hubo algunas señales favorables hacia la idea de inyectar dinero de los fondos de rescate directamente en bancos vulnerables (NYT, FT).
At a summit meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, regional leaders failed to signal any significant new steps to stimulate the sputtering regional economy or resolve the competing agendas of President François Hollande of France, who favors stronger action to spur growth, and his German counterpart, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has opposed aggressive moves to ease the pressure on Europe’s weakest economies.
[…] Some European leaders had tried to play down expectations for Wednesday’s meeting, one they said was only a prelude to a formal meeting scheduled for the end of June.
[…] The German central bank, the Bundesbank, warned in its monthly report Wednesday that the Greek situation was “extremely worrying,” but that easing Greece’s bailout terms “would damage confidence in all euro-area agreements and treaties and strongly weaken incentives for national reform and consolidation measures.”
[…] While talk has focused on how isolated Ms. Merkel has become in her stance against euro bonds and in favor of pressing deficit cuts, she is far from alone. Many Eastern European countries, which suffered through their own austerity programs to gain entry to the euro zone and are still poorer than Greece, have little sympathy for Athens. And the Austrians, Finns and Dutch have thus far hewed to Ms. Merkel’s line.
[…] the heads of the EU’s main institutions were given the task of drawing up proposals for closer fiscal co-ordination in time for another summit next month, including plans that could include a path towards a Europe-wide deposit guarantee scheme and, in the longer term, commonly-backed eurozone bonds.
Support appeared to be building for deposit guarantees commonly backed by all 17 eurozone members, which some officials believe are needed to prevent bank runs that could follow a Greek exit from the euro. François Hollande, the new French president attending his first EU summit, said he backed his Italian counterpart, Mario Monti, who has proposed such a plan.
Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, said there was also “strong support” for using the eurozone’s new €500bn rescue fund to inject capital directly into teetering banks, a proposal opposed by Germany but considered by many as essential for helping cash-strapped sovereigns shore up their financial sectors.
Instead of firm decisions, leaders voiced repeated assurances that they wanted Greece to remain in the eurozone, but emphasised any new government in Athens had to live up to the terms of its €174bn bailout.
[…] Mr Hollande gained most of the attention by continuing his surprisingly aggressive push for eurozone bonds, making clear his disagreement with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, at a post-summit press conference.
“For now, Germany’s line of thinking is that euro bonds, if I give the most optimistic version, could only be an end point, whereas for us they are a starting point,” he said. “It’s true that there is a difference.”