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After Credit rating downgrade Spain through the rating agency Fitch, the pressure on the highly indebted country is growing. The news agencies Reuters and dpa reported unanimously, citing government circles, that Spain will probably apply for help from the EFSF euro rescue fund today. It is about money that should flow into the support of the country’s banks. Before the announcement of the application, a conference call of the euro finance ministers was planned.

According to IMF calculations, at least 40 billion euros are necessary

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Spanish banking sector needs a safety net of at least 40 billion euros. This result of a stress test emerges from an IMF report on the stability of the Spanish financial system, which was partially published in Washington. The actual capital requirement is up to twice as high because of possible restructuring costs and loan defaults, said an IMF employee.

The government did not confirm the reports of an impending request for assistance. The Spanish Budget Secretary Marta Fernandez denied that Spain had to be saved. The claim that the euro finance ministers are planning a conference call today is also wrong.

Israeli President Rivlin has given Gantz and Netanyahu, who were fighting in the formation of the government, 48 more hours. If this attempt fails, there is a risk of new elections. Netanyahu meanwhile imposed further exit restrictions.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival Benny Gantz another 48 hours to form a government. Gantz’s 28-day mandate to form a government coalition after last month’s unsuccessful elections would actually have expired at midnight. As the presidential office announced on Monday, Rivlin agreed to the extension "provided that they are very close to an agreement."

Gantz and Netanyahu met overnight in a final attempt to resolve their differences. They then issued a joint statement saying they had made "significant strides" in forming a national emergency government to tackle the coronavirus crisis and end the country’s unprecedented political impasse. The impasse following three national elections – in April and September 2019 and again last month – has increased the prospect of a fourth ballot and undermined all plans for an economic recovery in the country.

Spain has now officially sent the long-awaited application for billions in aid for its ailing banking sector to its euro partners. According to the Minister for Economic Affairs, Luis de Guindos, no specific amount is specified for the time being. In the letter to Eurogroup leader Jean-Claude Juncker, his ministry said that the exact amount would be determined at a later date and that it would be large enough to cover the need and include a safety cushion. According to de Guindos, the details for the rescue of the sector should be known by July 9th.

The country’s central bank had one last week Cited requirements of up to 62 billion euros, while the euro countries reckon with a necessary amount of up to 100 billion euros. They already had that amount overall promised. The conditions have yet to be negotiated with the Eurogroup. In addition to the sum, the amount of the interest and the repayment periods are important.

First EFSF, then ESM?

Juncker had already stated that the money should first be paid from the euro rescue fund EFSF and later from the permanent rescue fund ESM, as soon as this came into force. If the ESM is ready for use in time, this fund can also be used directly, said Juncker. However, this is unlikely as the fund has not yet been ratified in all countries, including Germany.

Inside the reactor there are several hundred fuel elements, each with around 60 fuel rods bundled together. A fuel rod is only a few cm thick and consists of a shell made of a zirconium alloy. In there are the individual fuel tablets, about once a centimeter in size. The fuel rod is not completely full, so that gases and volatile substances generated during operation have room. Exactly such substances have been proven around Fukushima. Hence the statement: fuel rods must be damaged. And now it is becoming clear – in view of the amount of fission products – that this is not just minor damage, but that the reactor core is or was at least partially melted.

The consequences of a core meltdown can hardly be assessed

Due to the lack of cooling, the core heats up even when it is actually "switched off". The waste materials that are produced during operation continue to radiate even then. At about 900 degrees, the fuels then begin to oxidize and the fuel rod cladding to burst, writes the Society for Plant and Reactor Safety. What exactly happens then cannot be overlooked, even for experts: the fuel elements themselves continue to heat up due to the so-called decay heat. Oxidation also generates heat. The longer the cooling fails, the more it rocks. Even when exactly what melts, there are different assessments. This has to do with the fact that the various substances in mixtures and alloys react differently. The control rods could melt from 1200 degrees, the metal of the fuel rod cladding from 1750 degrees. The uranium oxide – the main fuel – only melts at 2800 degrees. But experiments have shown that violent core destruction actually begins at significantly lower temperatures of 2250 degrees.

The Spanish EU Council Presidency has put Germany under pressure on the question of aid pledges for heavily indebted Greece. Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said in Brussels that his country would push for an aid plan for Greece at the summit of heads of state and government later this week. Moratinos announced that Spain would do everything possible to send a signal of solidarity to Greece at the summit. So far, however, the federal government has refused concrete aid pledges.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for an end to the dispute before the EU summit. "We need a compromise – it is a difficult moment, we have an institutional and moral duty to intervene as soon as possible."

Barroso: No automatism

With the initiative, Spain and Italy are supporting EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who expects bilateral aid from Germany, among others, for the government in Athens. He is pushing for a decision at the EU summit and again countering Germany’s concerns. Even after a fundamental decision, the heads of government of the euro zone would not have to determine whether and in what amount they wanted to give the partner credit, Barroso told the "Handelsblatt". "The point is to create a support mechanism for Greece," he said. "That does not mean that this mechanism will also be activated. The participating member states of the euro zone will have to decide later if necessary."

The EU sanctions against Russia have been in force for five years. More and more demands are made to abolish them. How sensible are the punitive measures?

By Silvia Stober,

"Russia is a strategically important partner, for a better relationship we need an end to the sanctions," wrote Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer at the beginning of June after a conversation with President Vladimir Putin at an economic forum in St. Petersburg. The sanctions are a major problem, especially for the Saxon and East German economies.

The crisis on the Spanish real estate market has torn another company into the abyss: The highly indebted real estate company Reyal Urbis has filed for bankruptcy. It could be the second largest bankruptcy in Spain’s economic history.

It has now been around five years since the huge real estate bubble in Spain burst – and there are still huge shock waves: just over six months ago Spain applied for billions in aid loans for its banks from the EU, now one of the remaining real estate marketers is breaking together with a great din. Reyal Urbis owes more than three and a half billion euros. The assets are a little more than four billion euros.

The creditors of Reyal Urbis are mainly the major Spanish bank Santander and the partially nationalized Bankia – more precisely: the outsourced Bad Bank. In addition, there are not inconsiderable tax liabilities to the Spanish state.