The Euro-crisis in quotes

This is what I learnt from today's research on the Eurozone crisis:

The new EU fiscal compact is little more than a blank piece of paper.

Britain's failure to agree to this compact was the greatest foreign policy disaster in our history.

Allowing the ECB to buy government bonds won't help.

Cameron's veto did the Eurozone a favour by obscuring the fact that the fiscal compact is only a blank piece of paper.

An obscure Belgian wanted to eat David Cameron if he didn't agree to the compact.

The sordid details are found below......

Petr Necas, the prime minister of the Czech Republic
“Right now, (the EU summit agreement) is not much more than a blank sheet of paper and even the name of the future treaty might still change. I think that it would be politically short-sighted to come out with strong statements that we should sign that piece of paper.”

Will Hutton, the Observer
"As an act of self-defeating, crass stupidity, (Cameron's veto) has rarely been equalled in British foreign policy."

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden
"My position is that it's important to know exactly what consequences this will have before we sign an agreement. Some people think we should say no, some people think we should say yes."

Anthony Peters, strategist at SwissInvest
"Am I alone in being concerned that everyone seems to be clamouring for the ECB to resort to bond purchases as the "magic bullet" when every other "magic bullet" has so far failed to offer reprieve? Let's face it; QE has not saved Japan, QE has not saved the UK and QE has not saved the US either. All that QE really seems to have done is to postpone Judgement Day."

Larry Elliott, Guardian Economics Editor
"It did what European summits always do: outlined a plan with the details to be inked in later, in this case at the next summit in three months' time. David Cameron's use of the veto rather obscured the fact that nothing has really been resolved."

Guy Verhofstadt, obscure Belgian and leader of the European Parliament's liberal group.
"David Cameron will come to the conclusion that he has made the blunder of a lifetime. There is one golden rule in politics: you only walk away if you are sure that the others will. When you are invited to a table, it is either as a guest or you are part of a menu.""