In the annals of the European Union, the summer of 2011 will not be remembered as a calm, lazy period. The August 16 meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, which took place against the backdrop of reports of a looming financial crisis in France, and the understandings that were reached on a series of financial matters (on which agreements had been reached in the past) were an additional milestone in the attempt by Euro zone leaders to calm the financial markets – thus far, not very successfully.
In an interview with a French radio station on August 9, the president of the European Central Bank described the current financial crisis as the worst since the end of the Second World War. Previously, (August 6-7) he warned that “our democracies [i.e., EU states] would not be ready to provide once again the financial commitments to avoid a great depression in case of a new crisis of the same nature.” Such dramatic statements from an important figure are not heard every day.
