Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, left, speaks during a news conference with Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president. "We want to express our absolute will to protect the Euro" ... France's president Nicholas Sarkozy and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel. Photo: Bloomberg
LONDON: Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France have urged closer economic co-ordination and called for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions as they pledged to prevent a disintegration of the ailing single currency.
A summit meeting between the German Chancellor and the French President in Paris backed plans for all 17 members of the monetary union to write balanced-budget clauses into their constitutions by next year.
It also sought better governance of the single currency through the creation of a euro zone presidency.

But on the day official figures showed a marked slowdown in growth across the euro zone - including just 0.1 per cent for the quarter in Germany, the regional powerhouse - analysts said there appeared to have been no discernible progress on increasing the size of Europe's bailout fund or on the floating of euro-wide common bonds.
Both are opposed by German taxpayers, who fear they will have to pick up the bill for the problems in the weaker euro zone economies.
Dr Merkel did not close the door on euro bonds but said they should be used only as a last resort. ''The question is what is right now for overcoming the current phase of the crisis,'' she said.
''Over and over again, I feel that people are looking for the one event, the one method which will solve everything and lift us out of the crisis, and in this context people often say that the last resort is euro bonds,'' she said.
''I neither think that Europe is at the point of needing its last resort, nor do I think that we can solve these problems with what I have called a bang.''
Despite Dr Merkel's caution, Mr Sarkozy said ''we want to express our absolute will to defend the euro'' and for Germany and France to have ''a complete unity of views''.
The aim was to create a ''real economic government'' of heads of state and government that would meet at least twice a year and elect a president for 2½ years. Mr Sarkozy proposed Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, for the job.
Guardian News & Media