BRUSSELS, Belgium — Top European officials have called on countries that use the euro to surrender more control over their national budgets, a move apparently aimed at easing Germany's fears of sharing debt burdens with struggling governments like Spain or Italy.
The plan is meant to be a grand vision to save the euro currency from financial disaster and to set up negotiations between leaders at a key European Union summit on Thursday.
Germany, Europe's biggest and strongest economy, is increasingly isolated in its refusal to quickly adopt measures such as jointly issued eurobonds, which would see it take on some of the debt risk of financially weak countries. Some experts say such debt-sharing is what Europe needs to end its crisis as it would help defuse the prospect of unaffordable bailouts for Spain or Italy.
But Germany is worried that such debt-sharing would tempt financially weak countries to spend irresponsibly once again and not reform their economies. Reassuring Berlin that governments would face tough oversight of their budgets would be key to easing Germany's resistance to debt-sharing.