fiscal union

In a speech to the Bundestag in Berlin, Merkel said the time had come to stop talking about a fiscal union and start creating one.

Fiscal union is now officially on the European agenda in the run-up to the last European summit of the year on December 9.

In the long run, it will only help if it mutates into a fiscal union.

In fact, an unconditional ECB bail-out could be dangerous, just as a eurobond would be if not accompanied by a fiscal union.

The Franco-German proposal to transform the EU or at least the eurozone into a fiscal union is such a project.

Terrified by the consequences of the euro's failure, they have urged fiscal union on the eurozone as a means of shoring up the currency.

On the political side, the long-term fix to the euro's malaise is said to be a fiscal union, a true political federation.

A monetary union may require more than just a eurobond and a small fiscal union.

Ms. Merkel said the path to fiscal union was irrevocable, but that it could take years to overcome the crisis.

More than 220 years after Hamilton made his case for a fiscal union, America's national debt no longer answers all of the purposes of money.

Even if these obstacles could be overcome, it would take a decade to determine whether a tighter fiscal union was actually happening.

If German leadership is to avoid being oppressive, it must recognise that fiscal union cannot be a one-sided affair.

Many economists think the only solution now is for Europe, already shackled to the euro, to bite the bullet and become a fiscal union.

Concerns about a lack of fiscal union to support it were swept aside at Maastricht by the feeling that the euro was making history.

Most economic historians and international economists I know believe a monetary union would fail unless it develops into a fiscal union.

Before long, it's a promise that must lead to something close to what early euro-skeptics foresaw from the start: a European fiscal union.

Either the eurozone will deepen into a fiscal union, or the weak members will be forced to break off.

If the eurozone had moved to a fiscal union some years ago, its finance minister would now be in a position to take action.

If you assume the worst-case scenario of a default by five or six countries, a full fiscal union would be more probable than a break-up.

No. Nor, as so many suggest, is some sort of fiscal union the answer.

The key issue is not the size of a fiscal union but its content.

European leaders will face an ever starker choice between a break-up of the euro zone and a closer fiscal union.

Ms Merkel is not about to accept instead a federal fiscal union in which she would write the cheques for errant Club Med nations.

But the real, comprehensive fiscal union needed to restore faith in the euro, as opposed to a few new rules, remains elusive.

His remarks came as France and Germany edged towards closer fiscal union to avoid a potentially disastrous collapse of the single currency.

Whether electorates and their parliaments will accept a fiscal union will depend on their perceptions of the available alternatives.

European politicians need to create a new one, either with a more integrated fiscal union or a break-up of the current euro area.

Even the sceptical British say that the "remorseless logic" of monetary union is greater fiscal union.

And they have not decided whether the long-term answer is a fiscal union, or not.

Hence my unease when some politicians and economists call on the eurozone to take a sudden leap into fiscal union and joint liability.

For as long as there is no fiscal union, the eurozone member states have no option but to co-ordinate among each other.

For an exit from the crisis there is no alternative but to move closer and quickly towards fiscal union.

Plan B for the euro-zone was for fiscal union, meaning that the Germans would guarantee the debts of the periphery.

If the EU were to choose a small fiscal union, would electorates accept?

This is a systemic crisis of a monetary union that refuses to be a fiscal union.

It essentially involves Germany and other core euro-zone members giving up some of their sovereignty and embracing fiscal union.

To European federalists, America demonstrates that monetary union cannot survive without fiscal union.

If you start with those measures, you end up with a small fiscal union indeed.

A well-constructed fiscal union, by contrast, could deal with the sources of instability.

Using the ECB to back sovereign debt might be seen in some quarters as another stealthy step towards fiscal union.

Beyond this, we will probably need what I call a minimally sufficient fiscal union.

Future perceptions are hard to predict, which is why my path to fiscal union is not a forecast but merely a scenario.

Any sensible fiscal union must deal with economic instability directly.

A eurozone bond, flanked by a minimally sufficient fiscal union, would do it.

Yet, almost all political and legal experts who specialise in the European Union believe a fiscal union is Utopian.

A more fundamental step towards a fiscal union may be needed.

That is a huge step towards fiscal union, one that Europe is ill-prepared to take.

The euro area must eventually develop into a fiscal union in order to survive and flourish.

Perhaps a fiscal union that would supervise the issuance of common Eurobonds?

The reluctant but inevitable push for fiscal union heads into political opposition.

Monetary union has not begotten the expected fiscal union.

This is why, if serious, the debate on fiscal union is bound to involve discussion about the issuance of eurozone bonds.

Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister, said it would require a fiscal union.

The eurozone countries are struggling with efforts to form the necessary fiscal union to support their currency.

But as part of a fiscal union, it can rely on others to help.

They conclude the most likely outcome will be a fudge, well short of full fiscal union.

There is an alternative scenario, which does address the underlying institutional challenge and that is a fiscal union led by Germany.

For Europe, the price of continued monetary union will be stronger fiscal union.

That leaves fiscal union as the most likely destination.

We are drifting towards full fiscal union: only the timescale is flexible.

A move to fiscal union is [a closing] of this loophole.

The hitch to the latest touted fix (Just create a fiscal union! ) is how to make it happen.

In the end, creating a fiscal union in some form may indeed be the only way to save the eurozone.

The miniature fiscal union I describe would do precisely that.

So how could a fiscal union stabilise the financial sector?

Ms Merkel can get her fiscal union, but in return she will now have to accept a eurobond.

New York transferred over $950 billion to the rest of America's fiscal union from 1990 to 2009.

If a big leap towards fiscal union is unlikely, what of the opposite outcome, a break-up of the single currency?

This is why the debate about fiscal union is so important.

There are different ways you can have fiscal union.

Now it is urging on the euro zone a fiscal union of which it wishes to form no part.

On longer-term reform, there is a big debate over whether a fiscal union is needed.

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy meet in Paris for summit on fiscal union

We believed monetary union without fiscal union was risky;

Instead calls for EU treaty changes to advance fiscal union