US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will discuss the European crisis today with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Around noon or in the early afternoon - writes the German press agency Dpa - Geithner will arrive on the German island of Sylt, in the North Sea, where he will meet the German finance officer who spends his summer holidays in this location. Afterwards he will fly to Frankfurt where he will see the Italian president of the ECB.
Draghi announced a few days ago that the European institution is ready "to do what is necessary to preserve the euro" and curb tensions on the markets, causing increases in the stock market and a fall in risk premiums on debt securities from Spain and Italy.
Consensus for the holder of the ECB immediately arrived in a joint statement released by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. The statements by the former governor of the Bank of Italy have been interpreted as the announcement that the ECB will relaunch the public debt bond purchase program to relieve pressure on countries in difficulty. The German newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" wrote, based on information obtained from Brussels, that the ECB is considering taking on the debt of lenders and other investors on behalf of the European Financial Stabilization Facility, just as Madrid has requested.
The European Central Bank already has more than €200 billion in European bonds on its balance sheet that it has bought since May 2010.
