{"id":435302,"date":"2026-02-20T02:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435302\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T02:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T02:24:11","slug":"time-to-convince-berlin-on-eu-debt-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435302\/","title":{"rendered":"Time to convince Berlin on EU debt \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSome years ago, we were one, maximum two Governing Council members arguing in favor of eurobonds,\u201d Stournaras recalled. \u201cThe rest of us thought, \u2018You are coming from the European South, so it\u2019s understandable.\u2019 But now we have all realized how important it is.\u201d Now, even Germany\u2019s Bundesbank, the\u00a0de facto\u00a0leader of the skeptics, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/bundesbank-boss-joachim-nagel-reality-calls-more-eu-debt-eurobonds-central-bank-reforms-wish-list\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has turned.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As Stournaras sees it, the fact that southern EU countries that were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy a decade ago are now performing well has helped to shift views. Certainly, the subsidy from Berlin to other capitals that is implicit in joint borrowing has shrunk sharply. The infamous \u201cspreads,\u201d which represent how much more Greece and Italy had to pay than Germany to borrow for 10 years, now stand at less than 1 percentage point.<\/p>\n<p>Investor appetite<\/p>\n<p>The most powerful argument, however, is a clear message from investors that all of Europe will benefit from joint debt, Stournaras argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you talk to any important wealth manager, either in Europe or in the United States, and ask her why most of the current account surplus we have in Europe is flowing abroad, she will tell you that the lack of sufficient safe assets is the critical issue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is even more important than the rate of return.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Joint issuance should serve \u201cwell-defined common European purposes,\u201d Stournaras said. \u201cYou have three common needs in Europe that can be funded commonly. Defense, green transition, innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advocates of joint borrowing argue that a more liquid market for safe euro assets will enhance the region\u2019s relative attractiveness for global capital, at a time when the reliability and desirability of dollar assets are coming under increasing scrutiny. Competing with the dollar for global reserve currency status could ultimately \u2014 if only gradually \u2014 lower the cost of borrowing and investing for governments, companies and households.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSome years ago, we were one, maximum two Governing Council members arguing in favor of eurobonds,\u201d Stournaras recalled.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,460,88904,13931,1294,13932,13933,145,2043,2923,465,158809,467,9131,642,56,54,55,158810],"class_list":{"0":"post-435302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-debt","10":"tag-economic-governance","11":"tag-economic-performance","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-european-monetary-union","14":"tag-eurozone","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-greece","17":"tag-growth","18":"tag-investment","19":"tag-joachim-nagel","20":"tag-markets","21":"tag-monetary-policy","22":"tag-the-netherlands","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-unitedkingdom","26":"tag-yannis-stournaras"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}