Germany Nixes Doubling EU Fund: Report
Updated from 2:25 p.m. EST
Updated to include Germany's dismissal of plan to double EU bailout plan.
BRUSSELS (
) -- The European Union's executive arm Thursday floated doubling the size of Europe's 440 billion euro bailout fund for debt-stricken countries, but Germany nixed the idea, according to a published media report.
The report was published Thursday on
The Wall Street Journal's
Web site and cited anonymous sources familiar with the situation.
Germany is the eurozone's largest economy, and its support would be required to increase the size of the fund.
The
Associated Press
separately reported, however, that Axel Weber, the head of Germany's central bank, said European countries would be willing to increase the size of the fund by as much as 100 billion euros.
Europe continues to grapple with a debt crisis that has forced the EU and the International Monetary Fund to step in with bailouts for Greece and Ireland. Investors remain on tenterhooks that the crisis will leave other eurozone members such as Portugal and Spain unable to refinance their debt and require them to seek aid as well.
On Thursday,
European stock markets diverged
, with the bourses of healthier economies trading higher while those of fiscally troubled countries like Portugal and Spain fell. U.S. markets were closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Investors are now wondering whether the EU's bailout fund will be sufficient if Spain is forced to ask for help, the
Journal
noted.
Also Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the euro -- the currency of 16 nations -- would survive the current debt crisis.
"I'm more confident than this spring that the European Union will emerge strengthened from the current challenges," Merkel told business leaders in Berlin, the
AP
reported. She was referring to May's 110 billion euro ($146 billion) bailout of Greece.
The leaders of the eurozone's two largest economies, France and Germany, were to discuss the debt crisis later Thursday, the
AP
added.
This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet with contributions by the Associated Press.
