Finally the concrete proposals they have really arrived: this afternoon Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel presented a series of measures to save the euro which will be illustrated at the European summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels. Among others, automatic penalties in the case of no respect by a country in the euro area of the rule imposing a public deficit not exceeding 3% of GDPthe gross domestic product.
The package of measures looks like a yielding practically across the board by France towards Germany. The request to introduce the Eurobonds, long supported by the French President? No way. It was Sarkozy himself who underlined today that “they are not in any case a solution to the crisis”. Merkel had long insisted on the need for a new European treaty, without obtaining the consent of her French colleague. Well, today they both announced that the new treaty will be made, at 27 or at least 17, and hope to reach an agreement by March 2012.
France and Germany also want one "golden rule" on balanced budgets "strengthened and harmonised", to be included in the national constitutions of the countries that have joined the single currency: another workhorse of the Germans. Only on one element does Berlin seem to have yielded, at least a little: the establishment of a permanent financial relief fund (the so-called European Stability Mechanism) has been brought forward to next year, instead of mid-2013, the deadline initially envisaged.
This Franco-German agreement, which will be the subject of a letter to the president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, "is as complete as possible", said Sarkozy.
