Europe rescue plan likely to fall short

PARIS: Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, finds herself once again in the politically perilous position of balancing the future of Europe and its common currency against a German public that is unhappy at the price the country will have to pay. And, as before, as the euro crisis has unfolded, she finds herself fighting for measures that most experts have already dismissed as inadequate.
Merkel needs parliamentary support to carry out decisions made more than two months ago in Brussels, and to bolster her case she met with the Greek PM George A Papandreou, on Tuesday evening in Berlin. It was a kind of morality play, intended to show to skeptical German voters how the Greek government intends to keep its promises to continue cutting public spending and services to meet stiff deficit requirements , despite increasing political opposition.
Papandreou spoke again of the “great will for change” in Greece, while Merkel talked once more of her “confidence” that her wavering parliamentary coalition would vote on Thursday for an expansion of the European bailout fund. By the time the entire process is finished, about mid-October Europe’s leaders will have a newly expanded European Financial Stability Facility.