Germany refutes euro bonds

BERLIN (AP) — Two leading German ministers reiterated their opposition to issuing jointly guaranteed European government bonds as a means to end the eurozone’s crippling debt crisis, a day ahead of a summit between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German news magazine Der Spiegel in its edition dated Monday that so-called eurobonds are out of the question as long as the currency zone’s 17 nations still run their own fiscal policy, and that different interest rates for eurozone nations were needed to provide “incentives and the possibility of sanctions to enforce solid financial policy.”

Schaeuble acknowledged that the EU must, and will, beef up its response to the crisis to assist the heavily indebted nations, but that “there won’t be a collectivization of debt or unlimited assistance.”

Merkel has long ruled out eurobonds, and Economy Minister Philipp Roesler joined the chorus Monday, describing jointly guaranteed debt as “the wrong way” out of the crisis.

“Eurobonds would mean that everybody shares the same interest burden which would be a punishment for (financially) sound nations,” he was quoted as saying by German news agency dapd. “We cannot want this for Germany and for all other good states.”