Merkel Heads for Debt Showdown With Hollande at EU Summit

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Bloomberg:

Germany and France, the biggest euro economies, are headed for a showdown at tomorrow’s European Union summit over their views on how to stem a debt crisis that threatens the single currency’s survival.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she won’t shy away from disagreeing with French President Francois Hollande at the summit in Brussels over dinner at 7 p.m., the next major appointment of leaders seeking to allay concerns that Greece may quit the euro, putting Spain and Italy at risk as well.

Good cooperation “doesn’t exclude differing positions,” Merkel told reporters yesterday in Chicago during a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “These may very well arise in the context of the European discussions.”

While Franco-German collaboration has been a cornerstone of post-World War II policy making, Merkel and Hollande, France’s first Socialist president in almost two decades, have gotten off to a rocky start in a relationship that needs to work to spur economic growth and prevent Greece from leaving the euro area.

President Barack Obama, facing re-election in November, has prodded his European counterparts by highlighting the stakes. He hosted a Group of Eight meeting near Washington followed by the NATO summit in Chicago.

“What happens in Greece has an impact here in the United States,” Obama told reporters yesterday. “Businesses are more hesitant to invest if they see a lot of uncertainty looming across the Atlantic because they’re not sure whether that’s going to mean a further global slowdown.”

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Germany and France, at it again...