–Correcting last paragraph which erroneously stated in the version that
ran on Mainwire at 1027 GMT/527 ET that Juncker is Luxembourg’s finance
minister. He is still prime minister, and he still serves as head of the
Eurozone’s finance minister group, the Eurogroup. But he was replaced as
Luxembourg’s finance minister by Luc Frieden in 2009.
FRANKFURT (MNI) – Germany’s rejection of eurobonds without closely
studying the proposal is not in the spirit of Europe, Eurogroup head
Jean-Claude Juncker told the German weekly Die Zeit on Wednesday.
“Germany’s thinking is a bit simplistic. They rejected our
suggestion before studying it. This way of creating taboos and not
considering ideas of others is a very un-European manner to go about
European business,” Juncker said.
Jean-Claude Juncker and Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti,
in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times over the weekend,
proposed the option of a common eurobond, which would be issued by a
European Debt Agency, to help calm market concerns. Germany quickly
reasserted its longstanding opposition to commonly underwriting debt.
Juncker’s outspoken criticism is an unusual attack on a fellow
Eurozone member state and may well reflect growing frustration with
Eurozone policies increasingly dominated by Germany and France.
Juncker argued that the introduction of a eurobond would —
contrary to German chancellor Angela Merkel’s claims — not result in
uniform interest rates, since national interest rates would continue to
apply on the largest share of debt.
–Frankfurt newsroom +49 69 72 01 42; e-mail: jtreeck@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$$EC$,M$X$$$,MT$$$$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$]
