German Chancellor Ms Angela Merkel has expressed optimism that a deal on a comprehensive package of measures to solve the eurozone debt crisis could be reached by the European Union leaders on Wednesday.
The EU finance ministers, who have been holding a series of meetings since Friday, made significant progress and “I hope we can achieve our ambitious goals by Wednesday,” Merkel told journalists as she arrived in Brussels on Saturday evening to hold an emergency meeting with French President Mr Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of Sunday’s EU summit.
The chancellor had already indicated that no major decisions are expected on Sunday as she and Sarkozy agreed during a telephone conversation on Thursday to convene a second EU summit on Wednesday.
Both leaders wanted more time to sort out their dispute over further expanding the size of the eurozone bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), giving it a licence to operate as a bank, recapitalisation of European banks exposed to Greek debts and other issues, which are at the centre of the current discussions to resolve the crisis.
Therefore, they decided to meet again on Saturday night, for the second time in four days, in an attempt to iron out their differences before they meet their counterparts from the rest of the 27-nation EU.
“Whether it will be the breakthrough or as always the final result, we will know on Wednesday,” she told reporters.
The weekend meeting is intended to make serious and intensive preparations for an agreement next week because the issues are very complex, she said.
President Sarkozy said as he arrived for his meeting with Ms Merkel; “We have to find a final and long-term solution. We have no other alternative”.
One concrete outcome of the finance ministers’ meeting was an agreement to involve banks more deeply in waiving Greece’s debts than planned until now.
“We have agreed on a substantial increase in banks’ contribution to rescue Greece from bankruptcy, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister and chairman of the euro group said.
Belgian Finance Minister Mr Didier Reynders told a radio interviewer that banks and other private creditors will be asked to write down 50 per cent of their claims with the Greek government compared to 21 per cent debt redemption envisaged as part of a second €109 billion financial rescue package for Greece approved by the EU leaders two months ago.