| Germans oppose more teeth to EU |
BERLIN A large majority of Germans do not want to hand more powers to the EU, according to a poll published on Wednesday that underlined unease about a closer European fiscal and political union championed by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But the Forsa poll also showed surprisingly strong support for the beleaguered euro currency despite widespread German resentment at having to bail out heavily indebted member countries like Greece.
Just under three quarters of Germans were against the idea of a US of Europe under which Berlin would cede more sovereignty to EU institutions, while 59 per cent opposed handing budgetary powers to Brussels.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed much tighter fiscal and political ties between member states of the European Union as an essential precondition for any mutualisation of debt - a key demand of struggling southern countries such as Italy.
Voters in Germany, Europe’s paymaster and its biggest economy, are fed up with shelling out billions of euros to prevent countries like Greece defaulting on their debts.
Merkel was mauled in the German media for caving in to pressure from Spain and Italy at last week’s EU summit and agreeing to allow the euro zone rescue fund to inject aid directly into stricken banks and intervene on bond markets.
Reuters
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