Spain unemployment holds at 20%, Moody downgrade threatened-BBC

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• "Unemployment in Spain stands at close to 20%"-BBC

12/15/10, "Spain credit rating downgrade threatened by Moody's," BBC

"Ratings agency Moody's has said it may downgrade Spain's credit rating - warning of problems the country faces in refinancing its debts next year....

• Mrs Merkel has stressed Berlin's commitment to help its European partners, pledging that: "Nobody in Europe will be abandoned. Europe will succeed together."

But she has been an opponent of some suggested actions, including increasing the eurozone's 750bn euro bail-out fund or creating pan-European bonds to boost confidence in the euro....

• However, there has been criticism of some of the EU's key players who are seen as often dominating decision-making.

"I can only warn Germany and France against making a claim to power, which reflects

• a certain haughtiness and arrogance and disregards
  

the European principle of solidarity," Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, told Die Welt newspaper."

• (Right, pal. ed.)

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