Paul Taylor

PARIS, Dec 5 (Reuters) – The hunt is on for a competent,
articulate consensus-builder to succeed veteran Luxembourg Prime
Minister Jean-Claude Juncker as chairman of euro zone finance
ministers and help the currency bloc to emerge from crisis.

Juncker, 57, who has held the job since 2005 and has been a
leading protagonist in Europe’s monetary union ever since the
1991 Maastricht treaty, said on Monday he would step down as
Eurogroup chief at the end of the year or early next year.

His announcement set off a scramble to find a figure
acceptable both to fiscally conservative north European
AAA-rated states and to southern countries struggling to rein in
debts and deficits and regain economic competitiveness.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, 55, emerged as a
candidate on Tuesday but diplomats said he may not be acceptable
to the northern hawks because of his advocacy of common euro
zone bonds and a central budget for the 17-nation currency area.

“At this sensitive time, we need someone who can bridge the
differences between Germany and France,” a European diplomat
said. “That is hardly likely to be either the German finance
minister or the French one.”

PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone is in the recovery room now the danger of a Greek default has been averted for a couple of years, but it is not yet safe from a Japanese-style “lost decade”.

The currency area’s escape route hinges more on the pace of expansion in the United States and China, lifting the world economy, than on the policy mix in Europe, which will continue to favour austerity over growth in 2013.

At best, Ireland and Portugal could emerge slimmed down from their bailout programmes and regain capital market access by the end of the year, demonstrating that adherence to a tough fiscal adjustment plan can work.

PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone is in the recovery room now the danger of a Greek default has been averted for a couple of years, but it is not yet safe from a Japanese-style “lost decade”.

The currency area’s escape route hinges more on the pace of expansion in the United States and China, lifting the world economy, than on the policy mix in Europe, which will continue to favour austerity over growth in 2013.

At best, Ireland and Portugal could emerge slimmed down from their bailout programmes and regain capital market access by the end of the year, demonstrating that adherence to a tough fiscal adjustment plan can work.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Three years into the euro zone’s debt crisis, Germany’s finance minister hinted tantalisingly last week at a potential breakthrough.

Behind closed doors at a meeting in Paris of a small group of senior policymakers, Wolfgang Schaeuble indicated that Berlin could eventually agree to write off some of the money it has lent Greece, in order to make its debt sustainable.

Three people present or briefed on the talks said Schaeuble had suggested there could be some kind of “conditional debt relief” for Athens if it sticks to tough economic reforms.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Three years into the euro zone’s debt crisis, Germany’s finance minister hinted tantalisingly last week at a potential breakthrough.

Behind closed doors at a meeting in Paris of a small group of senior policymakers, Wolfgang Schaeuble indicated that Berlin could eventually agree to write off some of the money it has lent Greece, in order to make its debt sustainable.

Three people present or briefed on the talks said Schaeuble had suggested there could be some kind of “conditional debt relief” for Athens if it sticks to tough economic reforms.

PARIS (Reuters) – A new balance of power in the Middle East will limit Israel’s ability to impose its ceasefire terms on Hamas in Gaza, but technology is compensating by curbing the Islamist militants’ capacity to cause casualties in the Jewish state.

The strategic environment has changed radically since the last major armed conflict between Israel and Hamas in the winter of 2008-09, which involved an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip and ended with 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli dead.

Arab Spring uprisings have brought the Muslim Brotherhood – soulmates of Hamas – to power in Egypt, Israel’s southern neighbor which controls the Gaza enclave’s only other border, and in Tunisia, toppling veteran Western-backed autocrats.

PARIS (Reuters) – A new balance of power in the Middle East will limit Israel’s ability to impose its ceasefire terms on Hamas in Gaza, but technology is compensating by curbing the Islamist militants’ capacity to cause casualties in the Jewish state.

The strategic environment has changed radically since the last major armed conflict between Israel and Hamas in the winter of 2008-09, which involved an Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip and ended with 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli dead.

Arab Spring uprisings have brought the Muslim Brotherhood – soul mates of Hamas – to power in Egypt, Israel’s southern neighbour which controls the Gaza enclave’s only other border, and in Tunisia, toppling veteran Western-backed autocrats.

PARIS (Reuters) – In the rich lexicon of Brussels acronyms, a new treasure has entered the vocabulary since June: GEMU.

It stands for Genuine Economic and Monetary Union, a term used in the conclusions of the last two European Union summits in a tacit acknowledgement that the single currency created by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty was flawed and woefully incomplete.

It also signals that Europe’s leaders are starting to shift their focus from fingers-in-the-dike crisis management to save the euro to a longer-term process of building a more robust, storm-resistant architecture for the currency area.

PARIS (Reuters) – European Union leaders face two months of tough bargaining on money, power and the future governance of the euro zone before they can boost confidence that the existential threat to the single currency has faded.

The European Central Bank’s pledge to buy the bonds of struggling euro zone countries in unlimited amounts has changed the terms of Europe’s debt crisis.

Yet French President Francois Hollande may have been a little premature in declaring a turning point last week after another night of summit negotiation yielded a deal for a euro zone banking regulator to be launched next year.

PARIS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – From the Pyrennean pastures of Catalonia to the heathery highlands of Scotland, separatists are gaining ground as Europe’s economic crisis deepens, but this does not necessarily mean there will be more national flags on the map.

Flemish nationalists scored sweeping gains in Belgian local elections on Sunday, Scotland agreed terms on Monday for a 2014 referendum on independence from Britain, and Catalan separatists expect a regional election next month to advance their cause.

Just as nation states are ceding more power over budgets and economic policy to the European Union, regional grievances and conflicts that have simmered for centuries have taken on new intensity in fights over a shrinking pie of public money.