Europe got it right on Cyprus

Europe’s leaders should be praised, not berated for their hard-nosed approach to Cyprus. The immediate outlook for the island’s economy and banking sector appears bleak but for the wider eurozone this episode will eventually be seen as an important milestone on the road to stability.

Richard Barwell, senior European economist and Lee Tyrrell-Hendry, macro credit analyst, RBS

The subtext of Europe’s tough line on Cyprus is, of course, the situation in Italy and Spain. Europe has enough money to bail out a small country like Cyprus ten times over. The question is, and always has been, whether Europe has the firepower to bail out a much larger country, as well as the courage to stick to its principles if and when those countries get into serious trouble.

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