Germany: Eurobonds possible only ‘after several years’

Germany reiterated on Monday that eurobonds were not the right solution to the current crisis in the eurozone and could only be considered “after several years” of steps towards greater integration.

“We are talking about several years and certainly not a solution that we are thinking about in the current problematic situation,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman told a regular government news conference here.

“The federal government believes that eurobonds at the current point in time are a completely inappropriate means to bring Europe out of the crisis,” stressed the spokesman, Steffen Seibert.

“The chancellor has said many times in public that at the end of a European process — that would take several years — towards a stability union and towards greater political integration in Europe, it is conceivable that at the end of this process, there would be conditions that bring eurobonds closer,” he said.

Seibert said that the topic would likely not play a role in closed-door talks between Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Berlin later Monday.

The topic of eurobonds — pooling the debt of eurozone member states to drive down borrowing costs — has split the 17-nation bloc and was the main sticking point at an informal EU summit last month.

France, the European Commission and several other member states believe that eurobonds could represent the best way to exit the crisis crippling the eurozone.

Germany had been steadfastly against introducing such bonds, believing both that it would end up picking up the tab and that it would reduce the pressure on debt-wracked countries to tackle their deficit problems.