Summary Box: Germany open to raise crisis firewall
BENDING ON BAILOUT FUND: Germany is giving some ground on boosting Europe's financial firewalls. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was open to temporarily boosting the eurozone's bailout funds to €700 billion ($930 billion).
IS IT ENOUGH?: The €200 billion increase may still be short of what may be needed to protect Italy and Spain from collapse and to convince markets and global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund that the eurozone is doing enough to stop its debt crisis from spreading.
THE BACKGROUND: Germany has insisted there was no need to increase the lending capacity of the bailout funds beyond the planned €500 billion. The European Commission, the European Union's executive and other euro countries would prefer seeing the bailout capacity rise to €940 billion.
