German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that she expected small changes to the Lisbon Treaty to be ratified by the end of 2012, enabling a permanent euro rescue mechanism to be implemented in 2013, DPA reported.
This timetable meant that the treaty changes would have to be agreed upon at an EU summit next March, setting in motion the ratification process in the bloc's 27 member states.
The 2012 deadline was aimed at ensuring there was "no uncertainty that the current temporary mechanism may not be extended," Merkel said. The rescue measures agreed during Greece's debt crisis earlier this year expire in 2013.
The chancellor listed a catalogue of conditions for a permanent eurozone rescue mechanism, agreed earlier with France, which she said were "indispensable."
"The use of the mechanism can only occur in mutual agreement, that means a unanimous decision is necessary," Merkel stressed in an address to the Bundestag, or parliament.
It also included the demand that private creditors were included "on a case-by-case basis" if the crisis mechanism were triggered by a "threat to the stability of the eurozone as a whole."
"If a state cannot sustain its debts, private creditors must make a contribution," Merkel said, adding that the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank would jointly assess whether this were the case.
The chancellor reiterated her opposition to jointly guaranteed eurobonds, and said the bundling of risk within the eurozone was "not a solution."
"The solution is more harmony and more competitiveness within the European member states and the eurozone in particular," Merkel added.
Earlier Wednesday, the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) espoused eurobonds, in a joint article by former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former finance minister Peer Steinbrueck.
"Eurobonds would send the message that Europe is strong, united and willing to deal jointly with whatever critical market situation emerges," the SPD members wrote in the Financial Times.
The chancellor stressed that the European Union had mastered a fundamental challenge this year.
"The euro has proven to be resistent to crises," Merkel said.
She said the currency had remained stable, both internally and externally. This was visible in the euro's low inflation rates, and in the fact that it had retained its value against other currencies.
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