Deutsche Welle
July 20, 2012
Author: Bernd Riegert / ai
Editor: Shant Shahrigian
Spain's banks are to receive 100 billion euros from the EU. DW's Bernd Riegert warns that this will be another step toward joint liability - even though Berlin insists that it isn't.
The Spanish state was no longer able to help the country's ailing banks. To be sure, Madrid long tried to cover up the fact. But with the eurozone group's recent decision to finally bail out Spanish banks, Spain is now fully dependent on the rescue fund set up by solvent euro countries.
No flowery rhetoric can cloak the fact. Indeed, Spain's own banking rescue fund will be the first recipient of EU money. If the money is not paid back, Spain itself will be liable for the banks, whose wrong-headed speculations racked up so much debt in recent years.
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