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(huì)議上，德國(guó)、法國(guó)、西班牙、意大利四國(guó)政府首腦就銀行業(yè)聯(lián)盟的成立步驟以及與財(cái)政契約相配合的溫和刺激方案達(dá)成了協(xié)議。但德國(guó)總理安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)拒絕接受任何有關(guān)向西班牙和意大利提供救助的提議，聽(tīng)任這兩個(gè)國(guó)家遭受市場(chǎng)中大行其道的過(guò)高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)溢價(jià)拖累。默克爾的強(qiáng)硬態(tài)度可能導(dǎo)致本周的歐盟峰會(huì)淪為一場(chǎng)徹底的失敗，其后果可能是致命的——因?yàn)槿绻麣W盟峰會(huì)一事無(wú)成，歐元區(qū)其他成員國(guó)將缺少一道足夠堅(jiān)固的防火墻來(lái)應(yīng)對(duì)可能發(fā)生的希臘退出。