German media lambasts Merkel

BERLIN, June 30 (UPI) -- German media is lambasting Chancellor Angela Merkel in the wake of a European Union summit in which major policy shifts were agreed to in principle.

"Merkel must further tremble: multiple constitutional complaints against the decisions are announced. It means: now the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe is on the case," the daily tabloid Bild wrote.

"Merkel rarely sees these kinds of negative headlines," the influential magazine Der Spiegel wrote.

The chancellor can usually put a positive spin on summits. This time, "she had a hard time doing exactly that," the article in Der Spiegel said.

The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that Bild labeled the agreements at the summit, "Merkel's evil setbacks in Brussels."

The summit concluded with several agreements that Merkel had previously opposed, including allowing international aid to go directly to banks, rather than governments.

Merkel had repeatedly said that funding banks directly meant the international community would lose control of the funding.

Spain had a lot to gain from the agreement, as loans given to banks would not expand the government's debt.

Merkel had also opposed forming a region-wide eurobond. But Italy won a concession in which it would be allowed that funding headed to banks could be used to buy government bonds, nominally a step towards creation of a eurobond.

Merkel had also favored using the International Monetary Fund as the muscle behind fiscal discipline in Europe. At the summit, it was agreed that regulatory authority would shift to an empowered European Central Bank.