While Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero talked up his country’s progress in getting its debt under control, he also expressed faith that the euro zone would agree to take steps to strengthen the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the euro zone’s rescue fund.
However, Reuters reported that Axel Weber, outgoing head of the Bundesbank and a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB), said in a Tuesday column that ran in the Financial Times that there was no need to shore up the fund because steps already taken were adequate.
The difference of opinion has been running for a while, and while both Weber and Germany have frequently expressed their opposition, Weber, no longer a candidate for head of the ECB, may not carry the clout he formerly did.