France and Germany have called for rapid agreement on new EU rules to ban elaborate forms of speculation on national debt and company shares.
In a show of solidarity intended, in part, to compensate for their policy quarrels in other areas, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a joint letter to the European Commission yesterday calling for European measures to outlaw "naked" selling of stocks and insurance on sovereign, or national, debt. In a letter seen by the Independent, Merkel and Sarkozy write: "The return of strong volatility in the markets makes it necessary to question certain financial methods. "The Commission's work should include the possibility of a Europe-wide ban on naked, short sales o...
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