Debt crisis: Bundesbank Scuppers All Talk of EU Banking Union
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Germany's central bank has shot down EU proposals for a European banking union, warning categorically that eurozone liabilities cannot be shared without a fundamental shift towards fiscal and political union.

Andreas Dombret, a key board member of the Bundesbank, said the grand plan by Brussels is premature and unworkable as constructed. "It has to follow a deeper fiscal union as it would imply significantly increased risk sharing amongst countries."

Mr Dombret said a pan-EMU deposit-guarantee scheme and a debt resolution fund would require "a genuine, democratically legitimated fiscal union" and a new treaty.

The Bundebank's vice-president Sabine Lautenschlaeger hammered home the point in what is a clearly co-ordinated push to check the plan. "The result would be a pooling of the governments' liabilities through the back door," she said.

"Whoever is footing the bill must also have a right of control, particularly when it comes to the large sums that are seen in banking crises," she added, alluding to rulings by German courts that unquantifiable EU liabilities breach Germany's constitution.

Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed the tough line at a party conference yesterday, insisting that Germany will not accept variants of debt pooling or eurobonds until Europe has created a machinery of joint government. » | Ambrose Evans Pritchard, International business editor | Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Germany's Chancellor Merkel Urges EU Political Union
BBC: German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the EU needs a political union even if it means some countries integrating faster than others.

Speaking on German TV, she called for "more Europe", including a budgetary union, saying "we need a political union first and foremost".

"Step by step we must from now on give up more competences to Europe, and allow Europe more powers of control."

However, she has resisted calls for the joint issuing of eurozone debt.

She will hold talks on Thursday with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who has urged the 17-nation eurozone to speed up measures to build a budgetary union to shore up the embattled monetary union.

Ms Merkel's insistence on economic austerity and budget discipline has alienated many Europeans who say the policy is strangling growth and piling more debts on the struggling "periphery" countries like Greece and Spain. » | Thursday, June 07, 2012

N-TV: "Wir brauchen eine politische Union" – Merkel will vorangehen: Bundeskanzlerin Merkel will mehr Macht an Brüssel abgeben - und zwar auch dann, wenn nicht alle EU-Staaten mitmachen. Wichtig ist ihr, dass die Euro-Staaten enger zusammenwachsen. Damit verschreibt sie sich einem Konzept, das lange als Tabu galt: Das Europa der zwei Geschwindigkeiten. Man dürfe nicht stehen bleiben, "weil der eine oder andere noch nicht mitgehen will." » | Quelle: n-tv.de, dpa/rts | Donnerstag, 07. Juni 2012

SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: EU-Gipfel – Merkel will politische Union in Europa vorantreiben: "Mehr Europa": Angela Merkel will sich auf dem nächsten EU-Gipfel für eine Stärkung der politischen Union in Europa einsetzen. Gleichzeitig warnt die Kanzlerin aber vor allzu hohen Erwartungen - an einen "großen Wurf" glaubt sie selbst nicht. » | Donnerstag, 07. Juni 2012