Awwal 20, 1432 H/Feb 23, 2011, SPA -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel will tonight spell out her vision on the future of the euro at a keynote speech to a thinktank in Freiburg, south west Germany. Her speech was not released in advance, but interest will be high because of recent friction in the EU with Merkel, who has often urged other EU governments to end excessive deficits and regulate financial markets more strictly, amidst popular grumblings in Germany against bailing out profligate southern states such as Greece. Merkel gives the address at 7pm (1800 GMT) to the neo-liberal think tank, the Stiftung Ordnungspolitik, which favours free markets but with some supervision by the state, dpa reported. She has aligned with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy in demanding more EU control over economic policy to avert future euro crises. Analysts said that judging by recent remarks, Merkel was expected to stress that nothing was set in stone yet and that future Europe-wide economic rules will be a complex package that caters to the needs of all eurozone countries. Late Tuesday, Merkel met with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Berlin and praised Athens's efforts to fix its economy since Greece's crisis last May. She suggested a rescheduling of Greece's international loans might now be possible. "It is up for discussion whether we consider extending the runtime of the Greek programme. But this has not been decided on," she said.
