A group of almost 100 prominent Europeans delivered an open letter to the leaders of all 17 eurozone countries on Wednesday. The letter said, in so many words, what the leaders of Europe now appear to have understood: they cannot go on “kicking the can down the road”. The road has been blocked by the German constitutional court which has found the law establishing the European financial stability fund constitutional, but declared that no further transfers are allowed without Bundestag authorisation. The leaders have also understood that it is not enough to ensure that governments can finance their debt at reasonable interest rates, they must also do something about the banking system.
上週三，大約100名歐洲知名人士聯名發表了一封致歐元區17國領導人的公開信。信中直截了當地道出了歐洲領導人似乎現在已經認識到的一個事實：他們再也不能繼續「拖延時間」了。這條路已被德國憲法法庭堵死了——該法庭雖然裁定歐洲金融穩定安排(EFSF)符合憲法規定，但也宣佈除非得到德國聯邦議院(Bundestag)的批准，否則德國不得再提供援助。歐洲領導人也清楚，僅僅保障各國政府以較低的利率爲債務融資是不夠的，他們必須對銀行系統採取行動。