Crunch time for the euro zone
European leaders are holding their eighth crisis summit of the year. Get the news as it happens from Reuters reporters.
-
So European Central Bank President Mario Draghi won't be in Brussels for the pre-summit manoeuvring this afternoon. He tells reporters in Frankfurt: "I am trying to go to Brussels but I think I will participate in the dinner tonight and the summit tomorrow for lunch, but not the pre-summit meeting because air schedules don't work." - Reuters -
Heard on the streets of Athens in the run-up to tonight's EU summit: "Europeans are now the ones making decisions for us. I hope they don't decide that they are sick of us, that they've had enough and want to kick us out," said Mary Maniati, a 67-year-old housewife. Financial daily Imerisia is even more downbeat: "Today, 47 years after the founding Treaty of Rome, the European Union is not far from breaking up because of a resurgence of nationalism and radicalism." - Reuters
-
-
A tweet (https://twitter.com/ECspokesKoen) by one European Union official on the eve of today's summit suggests a long night of negotiations ahead. It reads simply: "It looks like it would be a good idea to get a good night's sleep. As a pre-emptive strike." - Reuters
-
ECB downplays its role as EU seeks crisis deal www.reuters.com
-
How do you change a treaty? www.reuters.com
-
The euro zone will probably survive in its current form even though leaders at this week's European summit will fail to deliver a decisive solution to the debt crisis ravaging the currency bloc, a Reuters poll shows. www.reuters.com
-
A third of Germans have little or no trust in the strength of the euro, according to a survey www.reuters.com
-
Euro zone leaders will likely agree to boost the International Monetary Fund's lending capacity with 150 billion euros and bring forward the launch of the ESM permanent bailout fund in efforts to end a debt crisis, a senior euro zone source says. www.reuters.com
-
-
Analysis: Old and young bear strain as euro crisis festers www.reuters.com
-
Euro zone countries will find it increasingly difficult to finance themselves at affordable interest rates next year unless policymakers can reassure investors within two months that Italy will be able to repay its debt. www.reuters.com
-
Insight: Credit noose tightens slowly in central Europe www.reuters.com
-
-
Following are highlights of comments from leaders and other senior officials as they arrived before an informal dinner to begin the summit:
EUROGROUP PRESIDENT JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER
ON CHANGING THE EUROPEAN UNION TREATY:
"I would very much like if we managed a treaty change and an final agreement of the architectural foundations with 27 (EU member states). Should it turn out that not all 27 are able to go down this path, then we have to make a treaty change for the 17 euro states. I don't want this but I don't exclude it."
"I'd like a treaty with 27 member states on board -- if that is not possible, with 17. I would not consider that, even though I would not like it, a dividing wall going through Europe.
"The 17 member states are sharing a common currency. Their relationship is more intimate than between the 27."
ON PROPOSALS FROM FRANCE AND GERMANY:
"I do think that the German and French proposals are pointing in the right direction, because these proposals in fact are the proposals some of us made months and months ago."
ON A BANKING LICENCE FOR ESM PERMANENT BAILOUT FUND:
"That's a question we have to discuss quietly tonight. I don't want to commit to that before. I wouldn't mind but we will have to discuss that." -
Other comments ahead of the summit:
VICKY FORD, CONSERVATIVE MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
ON BRITISH APPROACH:
"Within the area of financial services legislation, I think the UK should be focusing on avoiding EU 'one size fits all' legislation, which could limit the power of the UK's own regulators, as well as areas of legislation that would result in UK jobs relocating outside the EU, for example the financial transaction tax or bans on specific financial activities."
ON NEGOTIATING OPT-OUTS AND VETOES:
"Opt-outs and vetoes in this area sound good for the UK given the weight of financial services to the British economy, but this would have to be very carefully negotiated.
"If the cost of the UK getting an opt-out was to give all of the 27 different countries identical vetoes, then negotiating future legislation in this area could be chaos in getting cross-border agreements and undermine the single market.
"I am not saying that the UK should have no veto on all financial 'rules'. The UK does have a veto on taxes, including the financial transaction tax.
"The UK also has a specific opt-out from the Stability and Growth pact and therefore from the debt and deficit rules upon which it looks like any euro zone 'economic government' or 'fiscal government' is to be based." -
-
From our correspondent Mark John:
With its 24 km or 15 miles of internal corridors, the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels opens its doors to the summit. First leader through is Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker, who says he would prefer a new treaty deal backed by all 27 members of the bloc, but would take one approved by the 17 euro zone states if not. "The 17 member states share a common currency. Their relationship is more intimate than between the 27." -
DUTCH PRIME MINISTER MARK RUTTE
ON ENDING THE CRISIS:
"What we have to do is to make sure that such crises can't reoccur in the future. We have to do everything to make sure that sanctions for countries that don't abide by the agreements are as automatic as possible.
"At the same time we have to make sure that countries that are in trouble now will come up with a credible program to tackle these problems.
"We have to make sure that we are ready to help such a country if they are under strong surveillance and such a program exists.
"We also have to make sure that we keep the union of 27 together. It is not just a union of 17 euro countries. It is of great importance for a country such as the Netherlands, which is growth-orientated and believes in importance of jobs, that we keep countries such as the UK, Sweden and the Baltic countries and Poland in." -
-
President Barack Obama said on Thursday he was "very concerned" about the euro zone crisis and believed the European Union had the resources to solve it if leaders could find the political will.
"Europe is wealthy enough that there's no reason why they can't solve this problem," Obama told reporters at the White House.
"If they muster the political will, they have the capacity to settle markets down, make sure that they are acting responsibly and that governments like Italy are able to finance their debt."
Obama said he thought German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made progress with other European leaders in moving towards a "fiscal compact where everybody's playing by the same rules" and that ensured countries were not acting irresponsibly.
"I think that's all for the good but there's a short-term crisis that has to be resolved to make sure that markets have confidence that Europe stands behind the euro," he said.
"We're going to do everything we can to push them in ... a good direction on this because it has a huge impact on what happens here in the United States. They are our largest trading partner and, you know, we're seeing some positive signs in our economy. But if we see Europe tank that obviously could have a big impact on our ability to generate the jobs that we need here in the United States." -
Policymakers wondering how a euro zone disintegration would play out could do worse than study one monetary union collapse that went well: the split of the Czech-Slovak currency union. Full Story
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
From Reuters correspondent Mark John:
Straight out of the frying pan of Belgian domestic politics into the fire of the euro zone debt crisis: Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo gets a big cheer from mainly Belgian journalists as he arrives in the summit press area. Di Rupo knows a thing or to about seemingly intractable crises: he has only been in power for two days after it took Belgium 19 months of negotiations to form a government - a modern-day world record. -
Following are highlights of comments from leaders and other senior officials as they arrived before an informal dinner to begin the summit:
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON
"These are important talks and we need obviously to get that stability in the euro zone that's good for European countries, good for Britain as well, but also we need to protect Britain's interests.
"Those are my aims and that's what we'll be discussing."
GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL
ON RESTORING EURO CREDIBILITY:
"The euro has lost credibility and this must be won back. We will make clear that we will accept more binding rules.
"The 17 members states of the euro have to make this clear and that means the Commission will get more responsibilities and the European Court of Justice will get more responsibilities.
"That will make clear that in the future we will stick to the agreement of the Stability and Growth pact.
ON STABILITY AND FISCAL UNION:
"We are making an important step towards stability and a fiscal union. The 17 countries have to do this in order to do a favor to all of Europe. Negotiations will show whether it will work on the basis of 17 plus x countries, or all of the 27.
"It is important for me, as a result, that the euro can only regain its credibility by changing treaties to such an extent that we are moving towards a stability union.
"That for me is central and I hope we can be successful."
ON MAKING PROGRESS:
"Step-by-step we will approach the goal that unifies us. I think the member states that are not part of the euro have, just as much as those in the euro, a fundamental interest in the euro area working with more commitment and moving closer together towards a fiscal and stability union."
BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER ELIO DI RUPO
"It's a very important European summit. The most important thing for Belgium is to find solutions for citizens and to have the European spirit and solidarity during this summit."
IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE
"We have a lot of work to do. It has to be coordinated, it has to be decisive, and the International Monetary Fund will participate in these efforts." -
-
-
How will markets react to crucial EU summit? www.reuters.com
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Imran Khan's party wins revote in Karachi, protests expected
ISLAMABAD - Cricket hero Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party won a revote in an upmarket constituency of Karachi on Sunday, unofficial results showed, a day after gunmen killed a party leader, setting the stage for protests and counter-protests.
- Venezuela says taking steps to restore U.S. diplomatic ties
- Hezbollah steps up Syria battle, Israel threatens more strikes
|
- North Korea fires short-range missiles for two days in a row
|
- India gripes over border, trade woes on Li's first foreign trip
- Exclusive: Bangladesh factory banned by Wal-Mart still makes Wrangler shirts
- Obama walks a fine line with Myanmar president's landmark visit
- British PM urges more action on tax from UK territories
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
