Today in Brussels there will be a showdown on Eurobonds. Everything suggests that European leaders have accepted the invitation of the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy to talk about it "without taboos". On the field, the two sides that reaffirmed their positions yesterday. On the one hand France, which will formalize the request with Italy: the new French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici spoke of Eurobonds as "a strong idea to discuss". On the other, Germany, with Chancellor Angela Merkel reaffirming her opposition to European bonds. Indeed, in the words of German Deputy Finance Minister Steffen Kamper, it is a "wrong recipe at the wrong time with the wrong consequences".
Yesterday the OECD intervened on the issue, asking governments to take significant steps forward towards their establishment and the ECB to buy bonds from countries in difficulty. But former ECB member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi also spoke on the subject, rejecting the eurobond hypothesis as a solution to the European crisis: “Even if Germany's resistance to the launch of common debt issuance for the euro area were overcome, this solution would not ensure an improvement in the growth prospects for the euro countries". said the economist who now teaches at Harvard.
Meanwhile, a few hours after the meeting, the Social Democratic chancellor also spoke on the matter of Austria Werner Faymann, who said he "fully supports" the position of French President Francois Hollande in favor of Eurobonds, underlining that in any case it is a question of "a long-term project, which cannot be achieved in the next two or three years". Not to mention that there is a need for "credible budgetary discipline, an indispensable condition for the creation of Eurobonds".
Angela Merkel is therefore increasingly isolated, but still determined not to retreat a step. Against her also a Eurobarometer statistic according to which over 60% of Europeans are in favor of Eurobonds. For 64% of those interviewed (+3% compared to the previous survey) Eurobonds are "necessary in the name of European solidarity" and 61% (+4%) think that European bonds "would strengthen the financial stability of the member states".
But growth will also be discussed at the Brussels summit. And here again the expectation is for location who will take over Berlin. On the subject of the growth compact, the counterpart of the fiscal compact to complement fiscal rigor with measures for the growth of the Eurozone, Merkel has proved to be more flexible and willing to respond to French and Italian demands. All that remains is to wait.
