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European Crisis Timeline From Maastricht Treaty to Fiscal Union
By Bloomberg News
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Following is a timeline of Europe’s
debt crisis from the signing of the Maastricht Treaty to an
agreement 20 years later to set up a “fiscal compact” among
countries using the single currency.
*T
1991
Dec. 10: Maastricht Treaty agreed, setting up an “irrevocable”
monetary union without a central finance ministry or a mechanism
to leave the euro.
1992
16 Sept: Europe’s Exchange Rate Mechanism blown into disarray
when the U.K. is forced to exit the currency regime, a precursor
to monetary union. Billionaire George Soros reportedly makes $1
billion selling the pound. Italy later exits and the Spanish
peseta, Portuguese escudo and Irish punt are devalued.
1996
Dec. 13: In the absence of a euro finance ministry, EU leaders
consent to a German-inspired “Stability Pact” designed to
impose financial penalties on countries that overstep deficit
limits.
1998
March 14: Greece enters the ERM.
1999
Jan. 1: Euro established with 11 founding members.
2001
Jan. 1: Greece enters euro region. Greek 10-year bonds yield
5.36 percent, Spanish 10-year bonds 5.09 percent and Italian 10-
year bonds 5.16 percent. Germany’s 10-year bund yields 4.85
percent.
2003
Nov. 24-25: Germany, France override EU budget rules after
saying they expect to exceed the EU’s 3 percent deficit limit
for a third year. Spain, Netherlands, Finland and Austria
object.
2005
March 20: EU finance ministers bow to German pressure to relax
deficit rules.
2008
Sept. 15: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, triggering
worldwide market panic.
Sept. 30: Ireland guarantees all deposits and most debt
liabilities of its banks. Irish 10-year bonds yields 4.590
percent.
2009
Jan 14: S&P cuts Greece to A- from A. The rating company cites
the country’s weakening finances as the global economy slowed.
Greek 10-year bond yields rise to 5.43 percent the next day.
Jan. 15: Ireland nationalizes Anglo Irish Bank.
Jan. 19: S&P cuts Spain to AA+ from AAA.
May 6: Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado sees “green
shoots” in Spanish economy. Ten-year bonds yield 3.93 percent.
Oct. 4: George Papandreou leads Socialist Pasok Party to
landslide victory in Greek elections, beating New Democracy by
the widest victory margin since 1981 on pledges to boost
spending and wages.
Oct. 20: New Greek Finance Minister Papaconstantinou says
deficit will balloon to 12.5 percent of GDP this year, more than
double the previous government’s forecast. Yield on Greek 10-
year bond 4.58 percent.
Oct. 26: Former head of Greek National Statistics Service says
his body “holds no responsibility” for the revision of deficit
figures since 2008.
Nov. 5: Papandreou announces first budget. The plan aims to trim
the deficit to 9.4 percent GDP in 2010.
Dec. 16: S&P Cuts Greece to BBB+ from A-, three steps above
junk.
2010
Jan. 14: Greece adopts three-year plan to bring the European
Union’s biggest budget deficit within the EU limit in 2012. The
same day, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said Greece won’t
win any special treatment from the central bank.
Jan. 21: Papaconstantinou says Greece won’t need a rescue
package. The yield on Greece’s 10-year bond reaches 6.248
percent, a euro-era high.
Jan. 29: EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia says in Davos there is
no ‘Plan B’ for Greece. “Greece will not default. In the euro
area, default does not exist.”
Feb. 2: Greek government announces austerity package to get
deficit to 3 percent of GDP in 2012.
Feb. 11: EU leaders hold first emergency summit on Greece. EU
agrees to take “determined and coordinated action” to protect
financial stability of euro area, without giving further
details.
Feb. 15: Papaconstantinou says “we are basically trying to
change the course of the Titanic. People think we are in a
terrible mess. And we are.”
March 4: Germany snubs aid for Greece in “historic moment” for
EU as protesters seize Finance Ministry in Athens.
March 8: Portuguese government announces new budget cuts, more
asset sales and a freeze on public wages.
March 10: Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi says
Greece’s problems are “completely over. I don’t see any other
case now in Europe.”
March 16: Euro-region finance ministers lay groundwork for
making emergency loans available to aid Greece. S&P affirms
Greece BBB+ rating and takes it off Creditwatch negative.
Papaconstantinou says the EU needs a “loaded gun” to fend off
speculators.
March 18: Papandreou calls on EU partners to come up with
specific aid measures within a week to help Greece, hints he
might seek support from IMF if EU partners don’t act.
March 24: Fitch cuts Portugal’s credit rating to AA-.
March 25: Trichet says that the ECB will continue to accept
bonds rated as low as BBB- as collateral, reversing his January
refusal to give Greece special treatment. Later that day in
Brussels, Trichet abandons his opposition to IMF involvement in
a Franco-German plan to give Greece bilateral loans at market
rates.
March 26: Head of Greek debt agency says rescue deal “wipes out
the risk of default.”
March 30: Ireland says country’s banks need to raise an
additional 31.8 billion euros of capital.
April 8: Greece’s 10-year bond yield reaches 7.4 percent,
pushing the spread on German bunds to a euro-era high of 442
basis points.
April 12: Euro-area finance ministers agree to provide up to 30
billion euros of loans to Greece over the next year with the IMF
agreeing to put up another 15 billion euros in funds.
April 21: Greece, facing 8.5 billion euros in bond redemptions
the following month, begins talks with the EU, the ECB and the
IMF on conditions tied to 45 billion-euro in aid.
April 22: The EU revises Greece’s 2009 budget deficit to 13.6
percent of GDP, higher than the government’s previous forecast
of 12.9 percent. Ireland overtakes Greece as the EU nation with
the largest deficit with its shortfall revised to 14.3 percent.
Moody’s cuts Greece one level to A3.
April 23: Papandreou asks EU for a 45 billion-euro bailout from
the EU and IMF, calling it a “a new Odyssey for Greece.” “But
we know the road to Ithaca and have charted the waters,” he
added, referring to the return of mythological hero Ulysses to
his island home.
April 27: Ireland can “easily” weather the impact of the Greek
crisis on financial markets, the country’s debt agency head
said.
April 27: S&P become first rating company to cut Greece to junk,
downgrades Portugal to A-.
April 28: S&P cuts Spain’s credit rating for second time since
January 2009, pushing the euro to a one-year low of $1.3115.
May 2: Euro-region agrees on a 110 billion-euro rescue package
for Greece. Greece agrees to 30 billion euros in austerity cuts
over the next three years in exchange for the aid.
May 3: The ECB says it will indefinitely accept Greek collateral
regardless of the country’s credit rating.
May 5: Protests in Athens against the government’s austerity
plans turn violent and three people are killed when they become
trapped in a bank set ablaze by demonstrators.
May 6: Greek Parliament approves deficit cuts. Greek 10-year
yields reach 12 percent the next day.
May 7-8: European leaders agreed to set up an emergency fund to
stem the sovereign crisis and said the workings of the financial
backstop will be hammered out before the markets open May 10.
May 9-10: EU finance chiefs, in a 14-hour overnight session in
Brussels, agree to set up a 750 billion-euros rescue mechanism
for countries facing financial distress and the ECB said it will
buy government and private debt in the biggest attempt yet to
end the sovereign-debt crisis. The meeting gives birth to the
European Financial Stability Facility, the region’s temporary
bailout mechanism, with initial capital of 440 billion euros.
May 10: Merkel’s party suffers its worst postwar defeat in
Germany’s most populous state after a regional vote overshadowed
by aid for Greece. The result cost Merkel control of the upper
house of parliament. Bundesbank President Axel Weber publicly
criticizes ECB bond purchases.
May 12-13: Spain announces public-wage cuts and a pension freeze
while Portugal says it will lower the salaries of top government
officials and increase taxes. Spain cuts deficit target to 6
percent in 2011 and trims growth outlook.
May 18: Greece receives its first bailout loan for 14.5 billion
euros, one day before 8.5 billion euros in bonds come due.
May 27: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi unveils 25
billion euros in deficit cuts meant to help “defend the euro.”
May 28: Fitch cuts Spain’s AAA rating one level to AA+
June 23: Greek 10-year bond yield closes above 10 percent for
first time in euro’s history.
June 14 Moody’s cuts Greece to junk.
July 13 Greece returns to bond markets for first time since
bailout, selling 1.62 billion euros of six-month bills.
July 23: Europe publishes the results of bank stress tests. Only
7 of 91 lenders flunk the test.
Aug 24: S&P cuts Ireland’s credit rating to AA- because of
concern over the costs of shoring up the country’s banking
system.
Sept. 29: Spain’s first general strike in eight years to protest
cuts and an increase to the retirement age.
Sept. 30: Ireland prepares to take majority control of Allied
Irish Banks Plc and pump extra cash into Anglo Irish Bank Corp.
Moody’s cuts Spain’s AAA rating to Aa1.
Oct. 4: Greece announce draft budget plan to cut the deficit to
7 percent of GDP in 2011.
Oct. 18: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President
Nicolas Sarkozy meet in Deauville, France and agree that private
investors must contribute to future EU bailouts and Sarkozy
backs Merkel’s call for a permanent rescue mechanism from 2013.
Nov. 4: Trichet signals concern that forcing bondholders to take
losses will drive up borrowing costs.
Nov. 12: Seeking to calm markets, finance ministers of France,
Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. issued a statement at a G-20
in Seoul saying any private sector involvement would not apply
to outstanding debt and would only come into effect from 2013.
Nov. 14: Irish Enterprise Minister Batt O’Keefe says Ireland
doesn’t need a bailout, refutes talk of crisis.
Nov. 21: Ireland says it will apply for a bailout.
Nov. 23: S&P Cuts Ireland two steps to A from AA-.
Nov. 28: Ireland gets 85 billion-euro bailout. European leaders
scale back proposals to inflict losses on bondholders.
Dec. 23: Fitch cuts Portugal to A+.
2011
Jan. 14: Fitch follows S&P and Moody’s in cutting Greece to
junk.
Jan. 24: Spain announces new capital requirements for banks.
Salgado says the capital shortfall won’t be more than 20 billion
euros.
Feb. 11: Axel Weber resigns from Bundesbank after opposing the
ECB’s crisis policy.
Feb. 25: Ireland holds general election, with the ruling Fianna
Fail swept from power in the worst result in its history.
March 11: EU summit agrees to expand powers of EFSF to allow it
to buy debt in primary markets and tap its full 440 billion
euros in firepower. EU also reaches preliminary agreement to cut
the rates on emergency loans to Greece by 100 basis points for
first three years and extend maturities of the loans to 7.5
years.
March 21: EU finance ministers decide on mechanisms for allowing
the region’s permanent bailout mechanism, the ESM, lend 500
billion euros from 2013. The ESM will draw on 80 billion euros
of paid-in capital, enabling it to lend a full500 billion euros.
March 23: Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigns after
opposition rejects austerity package.
March 25: European Union leaders cut the start-up capital for
the future permanent euro emergency aid mechanism, the ESM,
after German demands to make smaller upfront payments.
April 6: Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates requests EU
bailout, saying he “tried everything” to avoid seeking aid.
April 15: Papandreou announces 76 billion euros of austerity
measures, later increased to 78 billion euros, running through
the end of 2015. The program pledged to raise 50 billion euros
from state asset sales and aims to cut the budget deficit to 1
percent of GDP in 2015.
April 17: True Finns, who oppose euro bailouts, win 19 percent
of the vote in Finnish elections.
May 6: Finance ministers from Spain, France, Germany and Italy
hold unannounced meeting in Luxembourg that prompt press reports
that Greece will leave the euro. Trichet walks out, refusing to
attend any meeting that discusses Greek haircuts. Luxembourg
Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs finance
ministers’ meetings, says possible further aid for Greece was
discussed.
May 9: S&P cuts Greece two levels to B from BB-, threatens
further cuts.
May 11: German Chancellor Angela Merkel signals that she will
support Mario Draghi’s candidacy to succeed Trichet as president
of ECB.
May 13: EU published new debt and deficit forecasts and predicts
that Ireland, Portugal, Greece will all to have debt of more
than their total GDP in 2011.
May 16: Portugal’s 78 billion-euro bailout approved by finance
ministers. ECB’s Executive Board member Juergen Stark says
restructuring would be “catastrophe” and wipe out Greek banks.
Bini Smaghi says no difference between soft-hard restructuring.
May 17: European finance ministers for the first time float the
idea of talks with bondholders to extend Greece’s debt-repayment
schedule.
May 18: IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns
after being charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel
maid. The case is thrown out three months later by a Manhattan
judge.
May 20: ECB’s governing council member and Bundesbank President
Jens Weidmann says central bank won’t take Greek bonds as
collateral if maturities extended.
May 22: Spain’s ruling Socialists suffer worst local election
defeat in 30 years.
May 24: Greece announces details on additional 6 billion euros
of 2011 budget cuts, plan to speed asset sales. ECB governing
council member Christian Noyer says Greek restructuring would be
‘horror story.’
May 27: Greek Cabinet passes another 6 billion euros in
austerity measures and gave some details on planned assets
sales.
June 5: Social Democratic and People’s Party win majority in
Portuguese election, routing Socrates’ Socialists.
June 7: EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn says June may
be the “beginning of the end” of the crisis.
June 13: S&P Cuts Greece to CCC, the lowest rating for any
country it reviews in the world.
June 15: Papandreou announces Cabinet reshuffle and confidence
vote.
June 17: Papandreou appoints Defense Minister Evangelos
Venizelos to replace Papaconstantinou as finance minister.
June 22: Papandreou survives confidence vote in his government.
June 24: Draghi appointed to succeed Trichet as president of
the ECB.
June 28: French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is named the
first female head of the IMF with a mandate starting July 5.
June 30: Greek lawmakers approve the 78 billion-euro austerity
plan after two votes in two days marred by violent protests
outside parliament. Berlusconi’s Cabinet approves 47 billion
euros in deficit-cutting measures to try to balance the budget
by 2014 and protect Italy from the fallout of Europe’s debt
crisis.
July 5: Moody’s cuts Portugal to junk.
July 12: Moody’s cuts Ireland to junk.
July 21: EU summit passes second bailout package for Greece and
agrees to expand the powers of the EFSF. Bankers agree to take
losses of 21 percent on the net present value of their Greek
bond holdings.
July 29: Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
sets Nov. 20 as date for early elections that polls show he will
lose. Moody’s places Spain’s rating on review for a downgrade.
Aug. 2 Spain’s 10-year bond reached euro-era record 6.46
percent.
Aug. 4 The ECB votes to resume its bond-buying program, buys
Portuguese and Irish debt.
Aug. 5: ECB sends secret letter to Italy asking for more
austerity measures and a plan to balance budget in 2013 rather
than 2014. Berlusconi announces he will seek a balanced budget
amendment and pledges more austerity Italian yields rise above
Spanish yields for first time since May 2010.
Aug. 7: After emergency conference call, ECB signals it will
begin buying Italian and Spanish bonds in secondary markets as
part of its Securities Markets Program. The next day Spain’s 10-
year yield falls 88 basis points to 5.16 percent, Italy’s drops
80 basis points to 5.23 percent.
Aug. 12: Italy’s Cabinet approves by decree a 45.5 billion euro
austerity package to balance the budget in 2013 that helped
secure ECB support for the country’s bonds. France, Spain, Italy
and Belgium impose bans on short-selling after shares in
European banks, including Societe Generale SA, hit their lowest
level since Lehman’s collapse.
Aug. 16: Finland and Greece strike agreement on collateral to
guarantee bailout contributions. The agreement was opposed by
other euro members such as Austria and the Netherlands and had
to be re-negotiated.
Aug. 19: Spain’s Cabinet passes another 5 billion euros of
savings and cuts VAT on new home purchases.
Aug. 29 Berlusconi bows to pressure from his allies to overhaul
the August austerity package and drop a tax surcharge on
Italians earning more than 90,000 euros a year.
Aug. 31: Portugal raises capital gains taxes and increases
levies on corporate profit and high earners.
Sept. 2: Inspectors from the European Union, European Central
Bank and International Monetary Fund suspend Greece’s fifth
review after finding delays in the implementation of the medium
term fiscal plan and structural economic reforms. Spain adds
budget-discipline amendment to constitution, the second change
in its 30-year history.
Sept. 6: Italian unions hold general strike.
Sept. 9: Juergen Stark resigns from ECB after opposing the
bank’s bond purchases.
Sept. 11: Papandreou approves new emergency measures to plug a
gap in the budget for 2011.
Sept. 14: Italian parliament gives final approval in a
confidence vote to a 54 billion-euro austerity package to
balance the budget in 2013.
Sept. 15: ECB offers banks unlimited dollar loans for three
months as worsening debt crisis sparks concern some institutions
struggling to access U.S. currency.
Sept. 16: Spain brings back wealth tax scrapped in 2008.
Sept. 17: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner urges
European officials to deal with the crisis and avoid
“catastrophic risks” after flying to a meeting of European
Union finance chiefs in Poland.
Sept. 19: Standard & Poor’s cuts Italy’s credit rating for the
first time in almost five years, downgrading it to A from A+.
Sept 30: Spanish bank bailout fund takes over three more savings
banks, valuing them between zero and 12 percent of book value
and saying the overhaul of the financial industry is complete.
Portugal revises up 2010 budget deficit to 9.8 percent.
Sept. 22: Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti skips a
parliamentary vote on whether to permit the arrest of his long-
time aid Marco Milanese, straining relations with Berlusconi and
key coalition allies.
Oct. 2: Greece’s government approves the draft budget for 2012
which targets a budget deficit of 8.5 percent of gross domestic
product and announces it will miss revised deficit target for
2011.
Oct. 3-4: EU finance ministers work out a revamped deal on
collateral for Greek loans that satisfies Finnish demands and
those of other euro-region governments opposed to abilateral
deal for Finland. Leaders also hint that private investors may
have to accept a bigger haircut on their Greek bonds than what
was included in a July 21 agreement.
Oct. 4: Moody’s cuts Italy for the first time in almost two
decades, lowering the rating to A2 from Aa2.
Oct. 6: Spain says banking industry rather than the taxpayer
will absorb losses incurred from bank bailouts.
Oct. 7: Fitch cuts Spain to AA- and Italy to A+
Oct. 10: Dexia SA, Belgium’s biggest lender, becomes the
biggest bank to succumb to the debt crisis. The bank is broken
up, with Belgium taking control of its local consumer lending
unit and France taking control of the municipal funding unit.
Oct. 11: Troika releases statement on fifth review of Greek
economy and suggests the sixth tranche of the bailout payments
worth 8 billion-euro be paid.
Oct. 14: Berlusconi survives a confidence in vote in parliament
that he was forced to call to prove he still had a working
majority after losing a routine vote earlier in the week.
Oct. 18: French bonds yield 112 basis points more than German
equivalents.
Oct. 19: Merkel, Sarkozy and other leaders meet for ad hoc
emergency talks at Trichet’s retirement party at the Old Opera
House in Frankfurt.
Oct. 21: Papandreou wins parliamentary approval of latest
austerity bill, which includes wage and pensions cuts and plans
to lay-off 30,000 state workers. His majority falls by one
lawmaker to 153 after he expels Louka Katseli for voting against
one of the articles. EU, ECB, IMF issue draft sustainability
report on Greece which said debt dynamics remain “worrying.”
Oct. 23: European leaders say a summit on the euro crisis won’t
produce decisions and set another meeting for Oct. 26. Greek 10-
year yields trade at 25 percent. Merkel and Sarkozy smile at a
news conference when asked whether Berlusconi can fix Italy’s
finances.
Oct. 26-27: EU leaders hold 14th crisis summit in 21 months.
After more than 10 hours of talks, leaders agreed to leverage
the EU’s temporary bailout fund to boost its firepower to 1
trillion euros, force private investors to accept a 50 percent
haircut on Greek bonds, push European banks to raise 106 billion
euros in new capital, and extend a new aid package worth 130
billion euros for Greece.
Oct. 31: Papandreou stuns EU politicians and Greek lawmakers by
calling a referendum on the second bailout agreement. MF Global
Holdings Inc. declares bankruptcy after bets on sovereign debt
backfire.
Nov. 1: Stocks and bonds plunged worldwide on concern an
unsuccessful referendum will push Greece into a disorderly
default. The yield on Greece’s two-year bond rises to a record
84.7 percent. Draghi succeeds Trichet as ECB president.
Nov. 2: European leaders cut off aid payments to Greece and say
Greece must decide soon whether it wants to stay in the euro.
The ultimatum is at odds with the Maastricht Treaty’s assertion
that monetary union is “irrevocable.”
Nov. 3: Papandreou backs down on euro referendum. Draghi’s ECB
unexpectedly cuts interest rates to 1.25 percent at his first
meeting.
Nov. 4: G-20 meeting in the French city of Cannes fail to agree
on providing more resources to the IMF which could then lend to
Europe’s bailout facility.
Nov. 6: Papandreou agrees to step aside to make way for a
government of national unity.
Nov. 8: Berlusconi offers to resign as soon as Parliament
approves austerity measures pledged to European partners, after
defections from his ruling party left him without a majority and
bond yields surged to euro-era records.
Nov. 9: Italy’s 10-year bond yields 7 percent for the first time
in the euro-era.
Nov. 11: Lucas Papademos, a former ECB vice president is sworn
in as prime minister of a Greek unity government.
Nov. 12: Berlusconi resigns after Italian lawmakers pass debt-
reduction measures. Former European Commissioner Mario Monti
prepares to lead a technical government charged with
implementing the austerity measures.
Nov. 20: People’s Party leader Mariano Rajoy wins the biggest
parliamentary majority in a Spanish election in more than a
quarter century.
Nov. 28: U.S. President Barack Obama says after meeting with
European officials that resolving the crisis is of “huge
importance” to the U.S.
Nov. 30: Six central banks led by the Federal Reserve act to
make it cheaper for banks to borrow dollars in emergencies.
Dec. 1: Draghi calls for a “new fiscal compact” and signals
the ECB could do more to fight the debt crisis in return.
Dec. 4: Monti’s Cabinet approves 30 billion euros in additional
emergency economic measures for Italy.
Dec. 5: S&P puts Germany, France and 13 other euro-area nations
on review for a downgrade.
Dec. 8: The ECB cuts its benchmark rate back to a record low of
1 percent and offers banks unlimited cash for three years. It
also eases collateral rules.
Dec. 9: Leaders complete all-night talks in Brussels on a
“fiscal compact,” sparking a split with the U.K. Euro
governments add 200 billion euros to their crisis-fighting
warchest, tighten rules to curb future debts and speed the start
of a 500 billion-euro rescue fund to next year. Draghi welcomes
the decisions, without signaling any willingness to step up bond
purchases.
Greek 10-year bond yield at 32 percent.
Italian 10-year bond yield at 6.47 percent.
Spanish 10-year bond yield at 5.77 percent.
German 10-year bond yield at 2.07 percent.
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