Euro: Angela Merkel shook hands with Sarkozy
Posted by adminOn the fluctuating barometer of Franco-German relations, the weather is stormy. Received on Monday in Berlin with Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy will seek to close ranks with Chancellor suspected of wanting to play alone against the economic and monetary instability in the European Union.
With the approach of the European Council of 16 June and the G8 in Toronto, a week later, it becomes urgent for Nicolas Sarkozy to give the violins with Angela Merkel. Both are broadly on the same line in regulation, the outlawing of the speculators and the taxation of banks.A good starting point for the "couple" to meet, after weeks of tension related to the crisis in the euro area.
Also measured, on both sides of the Rhine, from internal politics that goes into the respective positions of President and Chancellor, both the penalty on the home front.
Between the two partners, the near collapse of Greece and its impact on the single currency have accumulated ulterior motives. The support mechanism 750 billion for the country in great financial difficulty should be finalized today by the finance ministers of the euro area, after having obtained a great struggle, the green light for German MPs.
Bone of contention
But Berlin is still reluctant to make a joint guarantee the completeness of money lent and insists that every country is accountable to the tune of the funds it allocates, and its conditions.French side, it also criticizes the Chancellor to have weighed 70 billion cost of the rescue of Greece was slow to react.
Two other cases have come to complicate the climate. Paris Berlin accused of having acted without consultation last month by banning until March 2011 the naked short selling to a technique that allows the sale of securities without holding on bonds and credit derivatives (CDS ) shareholders. Christine Lagarde has adopted a conciliatory tone, saying yesterday that Paris and Berlin agreed on the principle of the sales ban "naked" But the Minister of Economy has particularly stressed the need to "act together" , how to deplore once again the initiative of Germany alone.
The other bone of contention concerns the "mix" of austerity and European supervision of budgets, proposed by Berlin.Paris is hostile even if Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a step in this direction by proposing a constitutional reform on reducing deficits. For on the merits, the head of the state knows it can not afford to widen the gap with the Chancellor and his "stability culture". This is now the maintenance of optimal grade awarded to the "enterprise France" by the specialized agencies.