The Eurozone summit scheduled for next Friday in Brussels has been cancelled due to German reluctance to discuss contributions to the single currency's "firewall". This was announced by the president of the European Union, Herman van Rompuy.
According to European diplomatic sources, Van Rompuy has decided to cancel the summit - set to coincide with the last day of the Eurogroup meeting - after Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had warned that a decision on the extent of the "firewall" would not necessarily be taken before the end of March.
The G20 has established that European safeguards against sovereign debt risk will need to be in place before further financing of the International Monetary Fund can be made. Currently, the European Stability Mechanism - which will have to be in force starting next July - has a lending capacity of 500 billion euros: the discussion focuses on the possibilities of increasing this ceiling.
The EU summit scheduled for March XNUMX and XNUMX has on the agenda the signing of the fiscal pact that all member countries with the exception of Great Britain and the Czech Republic have undertaken to respect.
