Merkel, Monti pledge to do everything to protect euro

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti will do everything to protect the eurozone and swiftly implement measures agreed by European leaders in June, their governments said in a statement yesterday. The wording of the statement, issued after the pair discussed the eurozone crisis in a phone call on Saturday night, echoed a pledge made by Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on Friday and the European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi on Thursday. European leaders have gone on the offensive in recent days, underlining their commitment to tackling the eurozone’s crippling debt problems and seeking to restore calm after a week in which Spanish bond yields hit euro-era highs and Greece raised concern it would be unable to honour its bailout conditions and could exit the euro. Draghi’s comments were read by markets as an indication the ECB may revive its programme of buying bonds of troubled governments on the secondary market. Near-bankrupt Greece is desperately struggling to make savings. Its creditors are currently in Athens to assess progress and decide whether to keep it hooked up to a €130bn lifeline. Greek political leaders had agreed on most of the austerity measures demanded by creditors, a source close to talks said yesterday, and politicians were now eyeing pension and wage cuts to find the final €1.5bn of savings still needed. Greece must find savings worth €11.5bn for 2013 and 2014 to satisfy its increasingly impatient lenders. from gulf times.