Reply #6: europe: Chancellor Merkel's Difficult Battle in Brussels

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,802444,00.html

It is a tone that one rarely hears from Berlin on the eve of a major European Union summit. "We have the impression that some actors still haven't recognized the seriousness of the situation," a senior German government official told journalists in Berlin on Wednesday.

There are many, the official added, "who are very generous and very quick when it comes to finding new sources of financing, but have difficulties when it comes to addressing the deficiencies with the euro's design." In order to stabilize the euro, no "baby steps" will be sufficient. And there can be none of the "typical Brussels trickery" that could result in a compromise deal short of what the public and the markets expect.

Corrections to the EU's treaties are essential, the official said. "We aren't going to make any lazy compromises." Not exactly the kind of diplomacy one might expect from Berlin as Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Brussels.

But if Merkel's goal was to dramatically increase the pressure on the other 26 EU leaders who will attend the meeting, she certainly succeeded. Merkel is intent on establishing a strict new culture of stability, with rigid regulations regarding state debt and budget deficits in addition to severe and automatically imposed penalties for countries that violate those rules. She and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to the framework of such a deal on Monday. In order to make that happen, EU treaties will have to be modified.