Eurozone mini summit results

The tax on financial transactions proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy, seconded by Angela Merkel and turned down flat by David Cameron, may cause a split between the Franco German leaders eventually, as Merkel does not have a rubber stamp from all areas of her parliament regarding this potentially damaging tax. This is clear from their joint statment following their mini summit yesterday in Berlin.

The two leaders are having regular meetings to smooth the passage of closer European cooperation but maybe it isn't just Cameron that sees the danger in this move.

France and Germany would love a share of the UK's financial revenue, being a major global trading hub and the Tobin Tax, if applied in the UK could cause companies to relocate to a non tax zone. This of course could apply to France and Germany but they have less to lose.

They have also warned that Greece needs to firmly toe the austerity line to receive further bailout funds, the next due in March and Financial shares, especially French Banks, quite exposed to Greece, may stay weak ahead of this date, in case further write downs of Greek debt are required to keep Greece afloat.