A Big Leap for Germany on Aid Sharing, a Small Step for the EU
Berlin’s openness to joint EU borrowing to cushion surging gas prices shows the cost of inaction became too great.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Photographer: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images EuropeThe gathering tsunami of soaring energy costs finally forced Germany to act to quiet the grousing from the rest of the European Union.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is ready to drop his opposition to joint borrowing at the EU level to cushion the blow of the crisis, Bloomberg News reports. While this doesn’t look like a “Hamiltonian leap” toward federalized debt that some enthusiasts hoped for during the Covid-19 crisis — when a reticent Berlin gave the nod to an unprecedented €724 billion ($702.5 billion) recovery fund that offered grants — it’s a positive step. Italian debt rallied on the news, while the euro pared losses.