Is Germany sceptical about deeper integration within the eurozone?

During the meeting of the eurozone’s finance ministers on 8 December 2015, Germany’s Wolfgang Schauble commented on Brussels’ plans to mutualize eurozone member states’ bank guarantee funds as part of the banking union project and warned that his country might contest it at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Schauble’s statement coincided with reports in the German media of an unofficial deal between the European Central Bank and the national banks allowing them to purchase treasury bonds on a large scale. Over the past few years, national banks have to a significantly larger extent used the so-called ANFA instrument, which offers them a certain pool of funds to be allocated for tasks unrelated to monetary policy. Between 2005 and 2015, the volume of these funds which is used increased from 214 billion euros to 724 billion euros, and a great deal of it was used by the national banks of France and Italy. The ECB’s moves have been criticised by numerous German politicians.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background Information: Eurogroup meeting, 7 December 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/eurogroup-meeting-7-december-2015/

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