Looks like it’s Europe’s turn for a round of taxpayer funded bailouts. The Telegraph reports:
Photo: Julien Jorge (CC)
All 27 EU finance ministers have been summoned to Brussels on Sunday to sign up to a “European stabilisation mechanism. Britain will be unable to veto this as it will be put through under the “qualified majority voting” system.
The deal, effectively to shore up the euro, was denounced as a “stitch-up” last night after it emerged Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, had devised it behind closed doors and were attempting to push it through at a time when there is no clear government in Britain.
It was declared a “done deal” by the 16 euro zone leaders who met in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The decision was taken as David Cameron was locked in talks with the Liberal Democrats to try to form a government.
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, will fly to Brussels for the meeting after promising to keep George Osborne and Vince Cable, his Tory and Lib Dem counterparts, informed. EU finance ministers have been given the deadline of midnight tonight to agree the highly sensitive but rushed proposals to protect the single currency from financial turbulence from the Greek debt crisis.
[Read more at the Telegraph]
