Eurozone Faces 'Financial Disintegration' Unless It Acts Again, Warns Commission (The Guardian)

The European commission delivered more than 1,000 pages of diagnosis and policy prescriptions on the dire condition of the European economy. On banking regulation, administrative reform, labor market changes, growth and competitive policies, “the national reform programme does not contain any specific plans for addressing the challenges.” In December, the European Central Bank threw a trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) of cheap loans at European banks over three months, but the respite was temporary—investors have already lost confidence. The commission’s recommendations, which will be put to a summit of EU leaders in Brussels at the end of June, outline a giant leap in fiscal and economic union going beyond the scope of the EU’s Lisbon treaty and would require a new charter.