MADRID/BERLIN, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Spain’s short-term
borrowing costs hit a 14-year high on Tuesday as political
uncertainty over a solution to the euro zone’s sovereign debt
crisis hit another vulnerable southern European economy.

European Union paymaster Germany continues to block the two
most widely-touted exit routes from a deepening crisis that is
shaking the world economy — massive European Central Bank
intervention to buy government bonds, or joint issuance of euro
zone debt.

BERLIN, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Italy and Spain can resolve
their debt problems without outside help, European Central Bank
policymaker Jens Weidmann said on Tuesday, rejecting growing
pressure for the ECB to act as a lender of last resort to
crisis-hit euro zone countries.

As the debt crisis spreads to core euro zone countries,
pressure from markets and some governments in the bloc is
growing on the ECB to do more to help. Many see the bank as the
only institution with the firepower to contain the crisis.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told euro zone governments Friday to act fast to get their rescue fund up and running, expressing exasperation at their lack of progress in response to an escalating debt crisis.

With the ECB under intense pressure to play a greater role in tackling the euro zone crisis, Draghi said governments had failed to put into practice decisions underpinning the European Financial Stability Facility — the rescue fund which they have promised to give more firepower without yet explaining how.

FRANKFURT, Nov 18 (Reuters) – European Central Bank
chief Mario Draghi told euro zone governments on Friday to act
fast to get their rescue fund up and running, expressing
exasperation at their lack of progress in response to an
escalating debt crisis.

With the ECB under intense pressure to play a greater role
in tackling the euro zone crisis, Draghi said governments had
failed to put into practice decisions underpinning the European
Financial Stability Facility — the rescue fund which they have
promised to give more firepower without yet explaining how.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pressed euro zone governments on Friday to kick-start the bloc’s EFSF rescue fund, showing exasperation at their slow progress and resisting pressure for the ECB to do more.

Other senior ECB policymakers joined Draghi in pushing the governments to act, saying the central bank should not be asked to go beyond its mandate of delivering price stability.

FRANKFURT, Nov 18 (Reuters) – European Central Bank
President Mario Draghi pressed euro zone governments on Friday
to kick-start the bloc’s EFSF rescue fund, showing exasperation
at their slow progress and resisting pressure for the ECB to do
more.

Other senior ECB policymakers joined Draghi in pushing the
governments to act, saying the central bank should not be asked
to go beyond its mandate of delivering price stability.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Union’s banking regulator wants lenders to bolster their capital bases rather than cut back on lending, as they gird themselves to cope with the sovereign debt crisis.

If banks opt to shrink balance sheets it could potentially harm the economy, Andrea Enria, chairman of the European Banking Authority, said on Tuesday at a conference.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said on Monday international pressure for the European Central Bank to play a bigger role in tackling the euro zone debt crisis must end as it could undermine the ECB’s hard-won credibility.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are among those who have recently called for the 17-country bloc’s central bank to take a bigger role in resolving the crisis.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has resigned from his post as member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board to join Harvard University, ending a diplomatic row between France and Italy, but raising questions over the ECB’s independence under its new chief.

Bini Smaghi had been under pressure to leave his post following the appointment of fellow Italian Mario Draghi as head of the ECB, which left France with no national representative on the board since Draghi took over from Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet in November.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank more than doubled its purchases of government bonds in the first week of Mario Draghi’s presidency, data showed, with no let-up expected in the controversial program until the euro zone debt crisis eases.

Purchases totaled to 9.52 billion euros, Monday’s ECB bond-buying data showed.