London: France and Germany are ready "to do everything, absolutely everything" to ensure the stability of the Eurozone, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a speech in London yesterday.
"Of this there must never be any doubt: euro area states, and especially France and Germany, are ready to do everything, absolutely everything, to ensure the euro area's stability," Fillon told business leaders.
He was speaking at the start of his first official visit to Britain since he became prime minister in 2007, during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
‘Monetary heart'
Fillon added: "The euro area is Europe's monetary heart, and no one should have any doubt about the determination of the whole European Union to safeguard it. It's an absolute political and economic priority." His comments come amid investor unease that the debt crisis that forced multi-billion-euro bailouts of Greece and Ireland last year could spread to Portugal, and possibly even to Spain, Belgium and Italy.
After pulling off a successful bond sale on Wednesday worth €1.25 billion (Dh6.05 billion), Portugal said it had passed a key test of its credit standing on international markets.
But analysts were cautious, arguing that a bailout remains a real possibility.
Spain succeeded yesterday in reaching its maximum €3 billion target in a five-year bond sale, although it paid sharply higher rates than in the last such auction in November.
In an interview with The Times ahead of his visit, Fillon said he would be urging Cameron to back deeper European integration to save the euro or risk disaster in his own economy.
Although Britain has not adopted the single European currency, it is a major contributor to the International Monetary Fund-European Union bailout of debt-wracked Ireland, which is a Eurozone member.
Balanced budget plans
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he wants to anchor plans for a balanced budget in France's constitution, a step that would mirror Germany.
France aims to bring its budget deficit down to 6 per cent of gross domestic product this year and below European Union limits by 2013, Sarkozy said today in a speech to workers at an Airbus SAS plant in Toulouse, France.
"These targets are inviolable and will be held to no matter what the economic growth will be," Sarkozy said. "I want these targets to become a constitutional rule that will include the balance of public finances as a target." Prime Minister Francois Fillon will start discussions with political parties on the matter in the coming days, he said.
