Yesterday, once again, European leaders showed their inability to resolve the crisis of the Euro. And Nicolas Sarkozy has once again yielded to the demands of the German Chancellor. By ruling out any solution based on solidarity, the Franco-German couple is again guilty of sowing divisions within the countries of the euro zone, divisions which will weigh heavily for the future of Europe. Worse is to be expected in the coming weeks and months.

The r ecapitalisations which are being discussed at present and the use of the European Financial Stability Fund remain totally determined by market demands. This amounts to a signal to banks that they may continue to launch speculative attacks on the debts of states.

What is the sense of a reform of treaties in order to impose fiscal discipline on member states for three years? This is precisely what is already being applied through austerity plans that are undermining growth, destroying jobs and ultimately creating even more debt.

Once again European leaders are attacking the symptoms of the crisis rather than its causes. Instead of filling a bottomless pit, it is necessary to change the banking and financial systems by taking banks back into public control so as to transform credit policies, and using the power of the European Central Bank which, if it lent directly to countries, would render futile speculative attacks, whose victims today are Greece, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

This is exactly what Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy stubbornly refuse to accept. And this is exactly what the European Left defends with force and determination. We will not let the markets and rating agencies impose their blackmail.

Brussels , 24 October 2011

Pierre Laurent – President of the Party of the European Left