The euobserver.com reported on January 26, 2012:

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said transferring more powers to EU institutions rather than increasing the size of the eurozone's future bail-out fund is the way to overcome the euro crisis.

"'We have said right from the start that we want to stand up for the euro, but what we don't want is a situation where we are forced to promise something that we will not be able to fulfil,' Merkel said Wednesday (25 January) in the opening speech of the World Economic Forum, an informal gathering of leaders and business magnates held every year in Davos, a Swiss mountain resort.

"Merkel resisted calls made by the International Monetary Fund and the Italian Prime Minister to increase contributions to the European Stability Mechanism, set to come into force in July with a firepower of €500 billion and aimed at lowering the borrowing costs of large euro-economies such as Italy and Spain.

“'Some say that it has to be double the size, then if that’s not big enough, others will say it has to be three times as big,' she said.

“'If Germany, as the representative of all European countries, promises something that can’t be kept in the event of a harsh attack by the markets, then Europe would have a wide-open flank.'

"Instead, her solution is more 'integration', by transferring more powers from a national level to EU institutions such as the European Court of Justice, so that the continent is 'turned into a Europe that works.'

"'We have taken some steps closer to a fiscal union, but we can get faster, gain speed and become more decisive,' she added, in reference to the inter-governmental treaty on fiscal discipline currently being negotiated among 26 member states, except Britain."