Monti Urges ‘Deep, Quick’ Moves by Germany to Quell Euro

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti called on Germany to “reflect deeply but quickly” on steps to stabilize the European economy such as enabling direct euro-area recapitalizations of troubled banks or setting up a European-finance bank backstop system.

“Countries that are at the core of the system and which have had the huge merit of instilling the culture of stability to the EU in the first place, most notably Germany, should really reflect deeply but quickly on these aspects,” Monti said by video link to an EU conference in Brussels today. “Europe should really accelerate the efforts, as the European Commission is doing, in order to limit the contagion.”