From AlJazeera:
French President Francois Hollande stressed that a failure by Russia to reverse a flow of weapons and troops into eastern Ukraine would force the bloc to impose new economic measures.”Are we going to let the situation worsen, until it leads to war?” Hollande said at a news conference. “Because that’s the risk today. There is no time to waste.”
Read more at EU moves to ramp up Russia sanctions as Ukraine calls for NATO membership | Al Jazeera America.
Christian Rickens: Merkel’s concession is more than compensated for by a diplomatic victory she scored in the run-up to the summit: Late last week, she managed to get new French President François Hollande to sign off on her fiscal pact, which is deeply unpopular in Paris, in return for her support on the €130 billion ($165 billion) European Union “growth pact.”
The inequality of the deal is difficult to overstate. The growth pact is made up of little more than empty promises and dreams that can never come true. Though it won’t spur any growth in Europe, at least it won’t cost Germans any more money either.
Should one be looking for a summit loser, in fact, it necessary to look no further than Hollande. Not Angela Merkel. She merely did what she always does on the EU stage. She made compromises. And pretty clever ones at that.
via Merkel Concessions at Euro Crisis Summit Smarter than they Seem – SPIEGEL ONLINE.
