THE GERMAN chancellor has warned that the euro cannot remain stable if some member states feel the euro zone rules do not apply to them.
Speaking at the traditional Ash Wednesday event of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Angela Merkel made good on this year’s slogan on the wall behind her: “Time for clear words”.
“In the euro zone it simply can’t be that we give ourselves rules but that some, continually, don’t stick to them,” said Dr Merkel in a beer tent speech, her soundbites punctuated by musical interludes from a brass band.
“If we have a common currency like the euro . . . it can only be stable if all follow the rules and someone has to make sure of that in the EU.”
The brass band followed up those words with a few bars of Glory Glory Hallelujah, to energetic cheers from the audience.
In her home state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the German leader gave an energetic speech balancing local issues – the CDU is hoping to win back power in state elections here in September – with the upcoming summit on euro zone reform.
Dr Merkel knows it is difficult drumming up enthusiasm for expensive European rescue funds in one of Germany’s poorest states. Without going into the detail of the Brussels negotiations, she told her audience that Germany was dependent on the EU for prosperity and stability in a globalised world – “if we want to be strong we need Europe”. Her caveat was clear though: she expects more solidarity from others in the EU than had been the case in the past.
At the opposite end of the country in Passau, her Bavarian allies used their own Ash Wednesday event to warn Dr Merkel not to push her luck on solidarity.
Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) opposes measures to let the new permanent European rescue fund (ESM) buy up sovereign debt of euro zone member states. Any such deal is of a consequence that exceeds the competence of Bundestag MPs and will have to go to the constitutional court in Karlsruhe.
“In the case that the finance ministers prepare a proposal that doesn’t meet our expectations, then the road to Karlsruhe will be unavoidable,” said Dr Thomas Silberhorn, European spokesman of the CSU.
He said that the Bundestag had given Dr Merkel’s team “very little room to manoeuvre – “politically and economically but legally, too” – ahead of euro zone reform negotiations.
“I don’t think it would be politically clever to equip the rescue fund with the ability to ‘Europe-anise’ national debts,” he added. “Debts must not be Europe-anised. I reject that and many of the parliamentary party members reject that.”
Back in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a smiling chancellor was being wooed by CDU MEP Werner Kuhn, who reminded the beer-drinking audience that “Angie is our woman for euro stability”.
“When it comes to our currency, then Angie doesn’t fool around,” he said in a laboured speech comprising rhyming couplets. “Her goal for us is to keep the euro stable, because the euro is where friendship ends.”