Policymakers marked the 10th anniversary on Sunday of the introduction of euro notes and coins by urging governments in the currency bloc to save and consolidate to overcome their debt crisis, according to Reuters. While German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called the euro "a clear success story" and pledged the currency would remain stable, he also urged vulnerable debtor states to follow a tough savings course in 2012, boost their competitiveness and work to win back market confidence. "This is not a euro crisis, it is a debt crisis in some euro states," Schaeuble told German newspaper Bild in an interview to be published in Monday's edition of the paper. The crisis that began in Greece more than two years ago has since forced Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts and now threatens the efforts of the bloc's third largest economy, Italy, to raise 450 billion euros ($580 billion) to finance its debt burden this year. The head of Standard Chartered bank told a British Sunday newspaper that political leaders had yet to offer a meaningful solution to the bloc's debt crisis. "We enter 2012 with a very difficult outlook for the euro zone ... with an increasing possibility of countries actually leaving the euro zone," Peter Sands, chief executive of the Asia-focused bank, told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper in an interview. German Chancellor Angela Merkel herself warned 2012 would be harder than 2011 and Europe still had a long way to go in overcoming the crisis. In Italy, President Giorgio Napolitano called for sacrifices. "No one today can shirk his or her responsibility to contribute to putting the public accounts on track and averting Italy's financial collapse," Napolitano said in a 20-minute, nationally televised address late on Saturday. "It's hard to regain credibility after having lost so much ground, and our bonds -- despite some encouraging signs in recent days -- remain under attack in the financial markets," the 86-year-old president said. In France, the European Central Bank's Christian Noyer defended the currency union, saying the euro could yet become the world's leading currency if leaders of the 17-nation bloc succeed in tightening fiscal integration. European Union leaders agreed at an emergency summit on Dec. 9 to draft a new treaty for deeper economic union, with Britain the only country among the 27 EU nations declining to join the initiative. "If we implement all the decisions taken at the Brussels summit we will emerge stronger," Noyer said in an article for Journal du Dimanche to mark the euro coin anniversary. Notes and coins were introduced in 2002, three years after the currency began trading electronically.
