BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s parliament will finally approve on Friday the euro zone’s permanent bailout mechanism and new European budget rules drawn up by Chancellor Angela Merkel, but ratification of these tools for combating the debt crisis still faces legal hurdles.

Merkel will hurry back from a tense European Union summit for voting in the Bundestag (lower house) and Bundesrat (upper house) beginning at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT). A deal with the opposition will ensure she gets the two-thirds majority needed.

BERLIN/MADRID (Reuters) – On the eve of a crucial summit that could determine the future of the euro zone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed aside increasingly shrill calls from Spain and Italy on Wednesday for emergency action to lower their soaring borrowing costs.

European Union leaders go into the two-day meeting beginning on Thursday evening more openly divided than at any time since a still-widening debt crisis erupted in early 2010 after Greece revealed its deficit and debt were far higher than reported.

BERLIN, June 27 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel
accused other European leaders on Wednesday of wanting to put
the cart before the horse by pressing for common bond issuance
to fight the euro zone crisis before agreeing to tough new
budget controls.

Speaking in the Bundestag lower house of parliament before a
summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, Merkel did leave the
door open for the first time to using proceeds from a proposed
financial transactions tax (FTT) to boost growth and
competitiveness in struggling euro countries.