Soros: risk to euro without German concessions report

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

En dat uit de mond van de man die biljonair werd met speculeren tegen de
Engelse Pond ;)

Groet / Cees

Soros risk to euro without German concessions report
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E1A720100415
Thu, Apr 15 2010

MILAN (Reuters) - Billionaire financier George Soros thinks the euro and
the European Union itself are at risk of breaking up if Germany refuses
to play its traditional role and make concessions, he told a newspaper.

"The Germans have always made the concessions needed to advance the
European Union, when people were looking for a deal. Not any more,"
Soros told Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Thursday.

"That's why the European project is stalled. And if it can't go ahead
from here, it will go backwards. It's important to understand that if
you don't make the next steps forward for the euro, the euro will go to
pieces and the European Union too," he said.

Soros, who is speaking at a variety of events in Italy this week, said
whereas in the past there had been the political will to go forward,
"now there's a lot of doubt that it is there."

He said the EU needs a more flexible mechanism on deficit cuts so that
countries do not have to cut public spending so drastically.

"We need a sort of European Monetary Fund, which would make the
adjustment less painful," he said.

Soros said he was sure Greece could be rescued, adding that although the
Athens government was taking all the measures needed, Europe must help
if necessary, adding interest rates on emergency funding should be "as
low as possible."

The 5 percent rate on the funding currently "is a technical error,
because it makes it more difficult for Greece to get out of the hole."

Speaking more generally on the crisis and the excessive debt that caused
it, he said: "The correction has scarcely started."

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