As France and Germany have become the self-appointed leaders of the eurozone’s financial crisis recovery initiative, President Nicolas Sarkozy brought German Chancellor Angela Merkel in for a meeting in Paris, during which they decided, as Sarkozy said, “What has happened must never happen again.” Right, no argument there, so how is this going to work? The two European leaders had a few ideas Monday. –KA

BBC:

Eurozone states should face greater checks on their budgets and sanctions if they run up deficits, they said.

Mr Sarkozy said talks on a new treaty should be completed by March, to ensure such a crisis never happened again.

The Paris talks come ahead of an EU summit on Friday that is being seen as crucial for the future of the single currency.

[…] Mr Sarkozy said the shared Franco-German wish was for “a forced march toward re-establishing confidence in the eurozone”.

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