Europe's slump deepens as Kabuki summit falls short Once again
Europe's leaders have swooped into Brussels and vanished hours later without offering any clear way out of the pulsating crisis at hand.
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By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International business editor
8:32PM BST 24 May 2012
Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, said the EU is at a "crucial moment" in its history. "We have reached a point in which the process of European integration needs a courageous leap of political imagination in order to survive," he said. Yet no such leap was in evidence. The eurozone is no closer to equipping itself with federal debt machinery and a genuine lender of last resort.
French president Francois Hollande achieved his coup de theatre. The French media gently accused him of staging a choreographed spat with chancellor Angela Merkel over eurobonds, knowing that Germany will not share its credit card with the debtor states until there is a fully-fledged United States of Europe – anathema to France. "While Germany sees eurobonds as the end point, we see them as the starting point," said Mr Hollande.
French president Francois Hollande achieved his coup de theatre. The French media gently accused him of staging a choreographed spat with chancellor Angela Merkel over eurobonds, knowing that Germany will not share its credit card with the debtor states until there is a fully-fledged United States of Europe – anathema to France. "While Germany sees eurobonds as the end point, we see them as the starting point," said Mr Hollande.
His eyes are on France's legislative elections in mid-June. He has already fudged campaign pledges to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. He risks haemorrhaging support to the Left Front of Jean-Luc Melenchon if he yields on calls for eurobonds, a "growth compact", and an EU "Tobin tax" on financial transactions.
Officials at the Elysee fear a Red-Rose coalition if Mr Holland's socialists fail to win an outright majority, evoking memories of Leon Blum's Front Populaire in 1936 that set off a run on the French banking system and forced the country off the Gold Standard.
Officials at the Elysee fear a Red-Rose coalition if Mr Holland's socialists fail to win an outright majority, evoking memories of Leon Blum's Front Populaire in 1936 that set off a run on the French banking system and forced the country off the Gold Standard.
Greece scarcely made it on to the agenda. The hard decisions have been delayed until the next summit in late June. There was no agreement on use of the European bail-out fund (ESM) to shore up Club Med banking systems and take the strain off the sovereign states.