Steinmeier: European fiscal pact 'a sham'

Updated: 2011-12-15 11:11

(Xinhua)

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BERLIN - German parliamentary opposition leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday criticized the results at last Friday's European Union (EU) summit as very vague and by no means any effective step towards a common policy to curb the current eurozone debt crisis.

Citing Britain's refusal to the agreement, the chairman of the SPD-fraction told the Bundestag, the German Parliament, that the summit had seen a result of a divided Europe as the proposed new agreement has embarked onto a completely-unpredictable way both politically and legally.

"The fiscal pact is still a giant sham," Steinmeier said, adding that whenever in doubt, a member country could claim that the law of the EU Lisbon Treaty has priority.

Juergen Trittin, President of the Greens Party, evaluated the results of the summit as "crap out", calling them "not even cheese" but only "analog" cheese as they would not stem the crisis and there was no firewall to prevent speculation.

German Left Party leader Gregor Gysi predicted that the planned intervention to the national budgetary authority will not be passed at the Federal Constitutional Court. He criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's advocation of the "Europeanization of the Agenda 2010" would eventually lead to the social welfare cuts.

EU leaders agreed Friday morning at a make-or-break summit on establishing a new "fiscal compact" based on inter-governmental treaties rather than expected EU treaty changes.

The progress offered a glimpse of hope for the embattled eurozone. However, the failure to agree on treaty changes to enshrine tougher budget discipline in the bloc's basic law anticipates a bumpy road toward integration among the 27-nation bloc.

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