If a door closes, a small door opens. 24 hours after the launch of the decisive EU Council for the fate of the Eurozone, something has changed in Germany's positions. Not sure about the Eurobonds or any other form of debt mutualisation: “Never while I'm alive“, the chancellor cut short yesterday Angela Merkel. Rather, Berlin looks like soften its intransigence on the anti-spread measures proposed by Italy. The goal is to reduce the differentials of virtuous countries by allowing state-saving funds (first the EFSF, then, when it is operational, the ESM) to buy government bonds on the secondary market.
The opening came in the course of finance ministers meeting which was held yesterday evening in Paris, one day before the preparatory summit between Merkel and the French president François Hollande. According to sources close to the meeting, the German representative Wolfgang Schaeuble he would have said he was willing to discuss the proposal by Italian premier Mario Monti at the G20 in Los Cabos, immediately after Rome's bilateral agreement with Hollande. Also present with Schaeuble were the ministers of Spain and France, respectively Luis de Guindos and Pierre Moscovici, and the Italian deputy minister Vittorio Grilli. The European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Olli Rehn also attended the meeting.
While awaiting the summit of EU heads of state and government, scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Brussels, the final rush of the negotiations thus offers timid hope. This time some concrete results seem possible. Qualified European sources had warned yesterday afternoon that the Paris meeting would be "crucial" for an agreement on short-term anti-crisis measures and had not ruled out that the meeting could be transformed into a teleconference at Eurogroup level. But there was no confirmation on this point.
Meanwhile, in France, the government has taken different positions on EU plan officially presented by the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and developed together with the number one of the ECB, Mario Draghi, the president of the Commission, Josè Manuel Barroso, and the leader of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker. Speaking to Bfm TV, the French Budget Minister, Jerome Cahuzac, said that France and the other euro countries must accept "shared sovereignty" on some issues, in particular the preparation of national budgets.
The head of European affairs, Bernard Cazeneuve, who at the time sided with the no to the referendum on the European Constitution, said instead that "political integration cannot be the condition for emergency measures" in the EU, because "they need first of all concrete tools for growth”.
