Joe Weisenthal
Business Insider
10/22/2011
Now, bear in mind that The Telegraph is one of the most anti-Euro papers around, but regardless, this latest dispatch from the meeting of European Finance Ministers happening this weekend sounds horrible.
Just the title Eurozone summit – despair and backbiting in the corridors of power says it all.
The gist: France and Germany are in their worst divide ever, and it’s dawning on everyone that there may be no good solution that allows the EFSF to keep its firepower, Greece to avoid a catastrophic default, and the banks to avoid getting crushed in that default.
And this:
Compounding the trauma, Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister turned IMF chief – and one of the few key players who appeared to be enjoying herself in her new headmistress-like role – issued a grim warning to her former European peers.
The IMF would no longer be willing to pick up a third of the total bill for rescuing Greece, a contribution worth €73 billion, unless European banks were prepared to write off 50 per cent of Greek debt.
“It was grim. The worst mood I have ever seen, a complete mess,” said one eurozone finance minister.
Anyway, you should hope that A) they somehow turn it around in the next few days or B) This is just The Telegraph being The Telegraph, and that actually Merkel’s previous comments about expecting a big breakthrough this week are closer to reality.
Later today the UK government will face a rebellion over questions of EU membership.The debate, tabled by Conservative MP David Nuttall after a petition got over 100,000 signatures, asks that the UK hold a nationwide vote on whether to remain in the EU.
The Conservative Party, facing a back-bench revolt over their blocking of the proposal, has issued a three-line whip — the most serious requirement to follow party lines.
Senior Conservative Minister William Hague told backbenchers today, “The whole relationship with the European Union is a matter that concerns the government … it is not just something for the House of Commons to put up some graffiti about.”
David Cameron told the EU Council today “I think it’s very clear what the country wants us to do. To stay in the EU but retrieve some of the powers.”…
