German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a busy week
of shuttle diplomacy over the eurozone crisis, travelling to both
Spain and Austria for talks, her deputy spokesman said in Berlin on
Friday.
On Thursday, Merkel is due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Mariano
Rajoy in Madrid and attend a conference of German and Spanish
business leaders.
Friday's talks in Vienna with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann
are expected to also cover euro issues, spokesman Georg Streiter
said.
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy will also be visiting
her in Berlin for lunch on Tuesday.
Van Rompuy will then be meeting with French President Francois
Hollande on Wednesday in Paris, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras
on Friday in Athens and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on
Saturday in the northern Italian town of Cernobbio.
Hollande has paid flying visits to Berlin and Madrid in recent
days, while Samaras has been to Berlin and Paris for talks.
The flurry of shuttle diplomacy grows out of interlocked moves to
impose austerity in Greece, assess the scale of aid needed by Spain's
banks and roll back punitive interest rates on Spanish and Italian
government bonds.
The eurozone's next move to beat the debt crisis, starting up the
European Stability Mechanism (ESM), is on hold while Germany's
constitutional court considers the legality of the ratification
terms. It is due to hand down its verdict on September 12.
