Translated material
Visiting the Euro
America proposes strict rules for markets
The European Union needs to take urgent and effective measures to overcome the euro crisis. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner repeated this demand several times these days during his trip to London, Frankfurt and Berlin. Even before leaving for Europe, he warned that we were not talking about “possible coordinated interventions” by transatlantic partners in favor of a weakening euro, which was much discussed on both sides of the Atlantic.The EU's multibillion-dollar financial package to save the euro, adopted in Brussels, as Geithner noted at a London press conference on Wednesday after a meeting with his British counterpart George Osborne, “contains the right elements.” But the market also wants to see action: “I am confident that European leaders will do everything necessary to ensure the success of these measures.” In London, they discussed not only ways to overcome the current debt crisis, but also the future of European financial markets.
After this, the American guest arrived in the financial capital of Germany - Frankfurt am Main, where he had a conversation behind closed doors with the head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet. Another interlocutor of the American guest was the head of the German Central Bank, Axel Weber, who is the most likely candidate for the post of head of the European Central Bank after Trichet's upcoming resignation.
In Berlin yesterday, Geithner held talks with Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. As noted at the press conference, the positions of both countries for the Canadian summits planned for the end of June - the G8 in Huntsville and the G20 in Toronto - were agreed upon. Their main topic will be the further promotion of financial market reform. “The US government intends to seek the introduction of strict global rules for markets,” the American guest assured. His German colleague added philosophically that the positions of the two countries today are closer than they might have seemed recently. However, on the issue of introducing a tax on financial transactions, which the Germans actively continue to insist on, a unanimity of opinions has not been achieved.