BRUSSELS - Peace should not be taken for granted if the euro fails, German chancellor Merkel told MPs Wednesday (26 October) ahead of the eurozone summit where an increase of the bail-out fund firepower may lead to Germany's own state assets being taken as collateral.
In a dark blue jacket reflecting the mood in and about the eurozone, Merkel abandoned her usual cautious rhetoric warned outright of a war.
"Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and prosperity in Europe. They are not for granted. That's why I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails," Merkel said, followed by a long applause from all political groups.
"We have a historical obligation: To protect by all means Europe's unification process begun by our forefathers after centuries of hatred and blood spill. None of us can foresee what the consequences would be if we were to fail."
"It cannot be that sometime in the future they say the political generation responsible for Europe in the second decade of the 21 century has failed in the face of history," the chancellor continued.
She was asking for the parliament's "political" green light on a negotiation mandate for the EU summit, beginning later today in Brussels. The summit is seeking to increase the firepower of the €440 billion-strong European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to stop the sovereign debt crisis spreading to countries like Italy and ultimately, France. The Bundestag approved the measure by a large majority, with 503 members in favour, 89 opposing and four abstaining.
While stressing that Germany's contribution to the EFSF loan guarantees would continue to be capped at €211 billion, she said she could not exclude there may be "risks" for Germany linked to the EFSF increase of firepower. Her own party colleagues had demanded that she clearly excludes German state assets, such as the central bank's gold reserves, to be put as collateral for the EFSF lending power.
"Nobody can clearly estimate if there will be such risks. What I can say is that we cannot exclude it," she said, insisting that the current situation is pushing European leaders into "uncharted territories".
"Not to take these risks would be irresponsible. There is no better and more sensible alternative. Europe and the world are looking at Germany," the chancellor said.
Looking ahead to the summit, the chancellor repeated her long-standing stance that "there is no silver bullet, no simple solutions. We will still deal with these topics for years from now."
She repeated her insistence that the EU treaty had to be changed, in the medium term, to be more strict on countries breaching the euro deficit rules.
"Where does it say that any treaty change has to take 10 years or that there should be no more changes after the Lisbon Treaty," she asked.
EU leaders last Sunday agreed to have an evaluation presented to them in December by council chief Herman Van Rompuy about the possibility for a "limited" treaty change. |