Finance

Finance

France, Germany see budget discipline as key in crisis

06 December 2011 07:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel seek strict limits on deficit spending and sanctions on rule breakers in combating Europe’s debt crisis, APA reports quoting AFP.

The leaders of France and Germany pledged to remake the rules of Europe, creating a closer economic union buttressed by strict rules on government spending and automatic sanctions against countries that break them.

They now must persuade the rest of Europe to agree, and convince dubious financial markets that the steps are enough to regain control over a debt crisis that threatens to destroy the common euro currency.

Compromising on their policy differences, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint news conference in Paris on Monday that the European Union â€” or at least the inner core of 17 countries that share the euro â€” requires greater budgetary discipline.

Merkel and Sarkozy will take their proposal to a summit of all 27 European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday. Getting an agreement there is seen by some as a last-ditch chance to keep the euro from being blown apart by the debt crisis that began in Greece two years ago and has snowballed to include even the continent’s economic powerhouses.