EU debt crisis continues to simmer

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159894.html


Silvio Berlusconi was greeted with military honors in Berlin. His meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel came amid ongoing worries about the euro zone debt crisis.

Fears continue that after Greece and Ireland Portugal will soon seek financial rescue. Both leaders called for more optimism.

Markets are increasingly nervous about Italy’s high public debt, too. Youth unemployment is at 30 percent and the economy only grew by one percent last year. In Germany the rate of unemployment has dropped to an18-year-low and the economy grew by 3.6 percent in 2010 exceeding all expectations.

To overcome the debt crisis in many European countries Italy had lately called for euro zone nations to jointly issue bonds, an idea that Merkel strongly rejected.

She further said that competitiveness and sustainable economic growth are the best conditions for stabilizing the common European currency.

Berlusconi was joined by five of his ministers in Berlin. They also discussed a stronger European engagement in the Middle East and considered sanctions against Belarus after December's presidential election which the incumbent Lukashenko won with a landslide.

The EU has condemned the way government dealt with the opposition protesters after the election result was announced. The club's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has also called on the Belarusian government to release political detainees and stop the harassment of opposition activists.

The Euro-Crisis was the main topic at the 28th German-Italian summit. While Germany enjoys a strong economic recovery after the financial crisis, the situation in Italy is less rosy. Merkel stressed that Germany would do everything to stabilize the Euro, but the meeting could not hide the fact that the two countries have differing ideas on how this can be achieved.