Exit Clause: Merkel's Partners Want Broke Countries Out of Euro

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/csu-wants-to-kick-broke-countries-out-of-euro-zone-a-933680.html



Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the next government to be unified on its EU policy, but her sister party is resorting to populism. Bavaria's Christian Social Union wants tougher provisions against deficit offenders and the ability to drive them out of the euro zone.

Exit Clause: Merkel's Partners Want Broke Countries Out of Euro
By Peter Müller
November 14, 2013 – 06:23 PM

As the three general secretaries of the parties planning to form the next goverment in Berlin -- the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) -- offered a progress report on coalition talks, they had a singular goal. After all the news reports about bickering between the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the center-left SPD, they had hoped to demonstrate a bit of harmony between the parties, which are traditionally archrivals despite having governed together twice over the years.

When it comes to the most important issues, there's a high degree of unity, CDU General Secretary Hermann Gröhe told reporters -- particularly when it comes to policies on the European Union. SPD General Secretary Andrea Nahles agreed.

What they didn't reveal is the fact that the 12-page paper they negotiated in a working group covering European issues also includes a short note that has been appended to the minutes. In the text, which has been seen by SPIEGEL ONLINE, the CSU, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's CDU, calls for repeat deficit offenders to exit the euro zone.

"The CSU wants member states who will not be in a position in the foreseeable future to fulfill the stability criteria of the Maastricht Treaty to be given the possibility of temporarily leaving the euro zone," the text states. The CDU and the SPD take a different view from the CSU and no compromise is in sight.