ASSESSMENTS

Remaking the Eurozone in a German Image

Oct 19, 2010 | 13:35 GMT

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

Germany and France have agreed to EU budgetary reforms that would allow some form of mandated "debt brakes" — mechanisms to sanction member states should they amass too much debt — to be submitted to the wider eurozone for adoption. While the rules will prevent the free-spending ways that allowed the Greek debt crisis to metastasize, they will also limit the ability of eurozone states less developed than Germany — practically all of them — to catch up economically with the Central European power.

Berlin stands to gain much more than the EU Treaty-mandated debt breaks outlined in the economic reforms package it proposed with France on Oct. 18....

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