Cerstin Gammelin
Cerstin Gammelin has been a Brussels correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung since 2008. She made a name for herself with the 2005 book Die Strippenzieher. Manager, Minister, Medien – Wie Deutschland regiert wird (The Power Brokers: Managers, Ministers, Media – How Germany Is Run).
Updated: 16 December 2010
“The policy of austerity has reached its limits”, says European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, the first time Brussels has questioned its own policy. It’s time we grasped that one path for such varied countries doesn’t work, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung. 
In voting on April 16 against a delay in auctioning new CO2 emission quotas, the European Parliament has blunted the main weapon in the fight against global warming and scaled back Europe’s global ambitions a little more. 
In Athens, the war of nerves over the debt haircut is nearing a finale. The negotiations between private creditors and the government, however, are taking some dangerous stumbles. Before Greece gets €130 billion in aid, it must show some success with its reforms. And that, with all the good will in the world, cannot be achieved. 
The EFSF was meant to save the single currency. And yet it has found no buyers. Investors are shying away from a complicated, uncertain financial product whose weaknesses the politicians are trying to cover up. 
That’s not the way to save the euro, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung. With their secretive meeting on the Greek crisis, EU finance ministers have gambled away the last confidence of EU citizens in their governments. This must have consequences. 
A naysaying chancellor from Germany, allied with a fickle president from France, up against massive but irresolute resistance at the EU's 16/17 December summit. Is this how Europe saves its currency?