"Tinkering here and there is no longer enough". We need to be bold and courageous, not fearful and draconian," cameron said. In the case of greece, after the international monetary fund (IMF), the EU commission has now also brought into play a coarser contribution of public creditors.
On the stock exchange, new hopes of a settlement in greece and good US data with the promise of zero interest rates drove prices up further. The leading index dax rose to over 6500 points and was at its highest level since august.
Cameron made it clear in strong terms in davos that the united kingdom will not support the introduction of an eu-wide tax on all financial transactions under any circumstances. "If you take them into consideration now, it’s just insane. This should not be pursued further."Berlin and paris had recently hoped to get the brits on board with an alternative model.
Cameron now referred to the british solution of a bank levy and a stamp duty on share transactions: "these are measures that other countries should also be introducing."A financial transaction tax could cost the eu up to 200 billion euros in economic output and up to 500,000 jobs.
The prime minister also attacked the euro crisis management dominated by merkel. In the euro crisis, "we must not let ourselves be led by fear of failure"; europe must show leadership qualities. Great britain, the only one of the 27 EU countries not to sign up to the new fiscal pact, wants to remain in the european union. "We are not running away from the EU. Membership in the EU is self-chosen, and we want it to succeed."
Like IMF chief christine lagarde, cameron also spoke out in favor of topping up the permanent euro bailout fund ESM, which will be launched at the beginning of july with a credit line of 500 billion euros. The federal government has so far rejected this.
Spain sticks to its savings targets agreed with the EU despite gloomy economic outlook. This was stated by the new prime minister mariano rajoy during his inaugural visit to merkel in berlin. In 2012, spain aims to print its high budget deficit at 4.4 percent of economic output.
Merkel praised spanish reform steps and stressed that at the summit in brussel it was important to talk about more growth and employment in europe in addition to concluding the fiscal pact. "No one says that saving alone will help. Solid budgets and growth are not mutually exclusive. In the long run you need both."
According to merkel, the summit will not officially be about greece. The new report from the "troika" of the IMF, the EU and the european central bank (ECB) will not yet be available "by any human reckoning". With regard to the demands for the participation of public creditors such as the ECB in the debt relief for athens, merkel emphasized that the framework that had been set had not changed: "we are working on the basis that the voluntary debt rescheduling must first be negotiated."