Germany Prepares for Another EU Battle

An article in this week's edition of Der Spiegel magazine revealed what would likely be the next steps in the slow-burning confrontation between Germany and the European institutions. The battle is being held over deposit insurance, the controversial third step of the EU banking union. The report claimed that Germany feels strongly enough about the subject that it would be willing to form a blocking minority among the European states and halt the idea by official means at the next European Council meeting on Dec. 17. Moreover, the article claims that Germany should find it fairly easy to form the quorum needed for this kind of blocking minority because it could count on the support of Italy and France, as well as some of the usual hawkish Northern European suspects -- the Netherlands, Austria and Finland....