Eurozone ministers meet amid fears of euro breakup

[November 29, 2011]  BRUSSELS (AP) -- The 17 finance ministers of the countries that use the euro converged on EU headquarters Tuesday in a desperate bid to save their currency -- and to protect Europe, the United States, Asia and the rest of the global economy from a debt-induced financial tsunami.

The ministers were discussing ideas that would have been taboo only recently, before things got as bad as they are: countries ceding fiscal sovereignty to a central authority; some kind of elite group of euro nations that would guarantee one another's loans -- but require strong fiscal discipline from anyone wanting membership.

The fear is that the crisis -- which has already forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal -- could engulf bigger economies such as Italy, the eurozone's third-largest. If Italy were to default on its debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion), the fallout could spell ruin for the euro project itself and send shockwaves throughout the global economy.

In a reminder of the urgency, Italy's borrowing rates shot up Tuesday to rates above 7 percent, an unsustainable level on a par with rates that forced the others to seek bailouts.

At the top of Tuesday's agenda is finding a means to more fully integrate the eurozone's disparate nations -- ranging from powerful Germany to tiny Malta -- both politically and financially. And the ministers must do it fast, without the delays caused by democratic niceties like referendums that have led many EU reforms to take years to implement.

France's finance minister, Francois Baroin, said Tuesday on France-Info radio that countries should integrate their budgets more closely and monitor one another's spending.

"We have to modify eurozone governance," Baroin said. "We definitely have to move toward more integrated budgetary consolidation, fiscal convergence with our neighbors."

He said France and Germany -- which have largely been calling the shots on efforts to overcome the crisis -- will make proposals on how eurozone countries can monitor one another under such a new system.

The 17 ministers are expected to discuss jointly issuing so-called eurobonds -- an all-for-one, one-for-all way of having the different countries guarantee one another's debts. Right now each nation issues its own bonds, meaning that while Italy pays above 7 percent, Germany pays about 2 percent.

Having stronger countries like Germany stand behind the general European debt would lower Italy's borrowing rates -- and perhaps avoid a debt spiral that leads to a national bankruptcy. At the same time, it would raise Germany's cost of borrowing, and that's why Germany has been fiercely opposed to the eurobond proposal.

A French official said Tuesday that France may propose joint bonds among a subset of eurozone countries -- those with "triple A" credit ratings -- although Germany has said it opposes the idea. The French official said discussions about such so-called "elite bonds" is under discussion ahead of a summit of European Union heads of government in Brussels next week.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitive, closed-door talks are still under way.

Proponents of elite bonds say the proceeds could be used to help the eurozone's weaker countries deal with their debts, in return for strict conditions being imposed on their budgets. Critics argue that further fragmenting the eurozone into strong countries and weak countries would benefit no one.

On Monday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dismissed reports that such bonds were under serious consideration.

The whole world is watching the developments. It's not just a currency used by 332 million people that is at stake. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others have said, if the euro fails, so too does the 27-nation European Union, a rousing diplomatic success that united a continent ripped apart by two world wars.

If the euro fails, bank lending would freeze, stock markets would likely crash, and Europe's economies would crater. Nations in the eurozone could see their economic output fall temporarily by as much as 50 percent, according to UBS forecasters. The financial and economic pain would spread west and east as the U.S. and Asia get ensnared in the credit freeze and their exports to Europe collapse.

In all, it's a scenario far more dire than even the devastating 2008 credit crunch after the U.S. mortgage debacle.

"If Europe is contracting, or if Europe is having difficulties, then it's much more difficult for us to create good jobs here at home," President Barack Obama said Monday as he met EU officials in Washington.

[Associated Press; By DON MELVIN]

Don Melvin can be reached at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin.

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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