At a meeting in Rome last Thursday, the heads of state of Germany, France, Spain and Italy agreed on steps towards a banking union and a modest stimulus package to complement the fiscal compact. But Angela Merkel resisted all proposals to provide relief to Spain and Italy from the excessive risk premiums prevailing in the market. This threatens to turn the EU summit this week into a fiasco that may well prove fatal because it will leave the rest of the eurozone without a strong enough firewall to protect it against the possibility of a Greek exit.
在上周四的羅馬會議上，德國、法國、西班牙、意大利四國政府首腦就銀行業聯盟的成立步驟以及與財政契約相配合的溫和刺激方案達成了協議。但德國總理安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)拒絕接受任何有關向西班牙和意大利提供救助的提議，聽任這兩個國家遭受市場中大行其道的過高風險溢價拖累。默克爾的強硬態度可能導致本周的歐盟峰會淪為一場徹底的失敗，其后果可能是致命的——因為如果歐盟峰會一事無成，歐元區其他成員國將缺少一道足夠堅固的防火墻來應對可能發生的希臘退出。