Ireland's Kenny Says 'Only the ECB' Can Provide Crisis Firewall - BusinessWeek

November 16, 2011, 11:07 AM EST

By Patrick Donahue

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said that "only the ECB" has the capacity to create a "firewall to prevent against financial panic" during the current debt crisis.

Europe's rescue fund hasn't inspired confidence with its planned leveraging, Kenny said in a speech in Berlin today after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel, at an earlier briefing with Kenny, said that existing European Union treaties mean that the European Central Bank "doesn't have the possibility of solving the euro problem."

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net