Euro Crisis: Merkel Falls Short On Austerity Cuts Despite Stipulations To Rest Of Europe

Germany's Merkel 'Not So Efficient'

Despite German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s stipulations on austerity for the rest of Europe, it appears that her own country has been less than strict with calls to cut the budget.

Reported by Der Spiegel, the German government has implemented only 42% of the proposed spending cuts by the ruling coalition.

The figures are based on research by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research.

This year is looking equally underwhelming for Merkel, with only half the originally planned cuts likely to be implemented in 2012, leaving the country on course to make only a third of the originally proposed savings.

Twenty-five European countries recently signed up to a fiscal pact requiring them to introduce balanced budget initiatives, similar to those in Germany - initiatives that the German government, according to reports, is failing to adhere to.

The news of Germany's failure comes a day after the German Chancellor told reporters that Europe was "not completely over the mountain" in regards to the European debt crisis.

“We’ve come a good way along the mountain path, but we’re not completely over the mountain,” she said following a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.

“I suspect that in the next few years there will continue to be new mountains. There won’t be a celebratory event in which we say we’re over the mountain and now we can sit among the trees and say that we’ve done it.”

Following the meting, Monti urged caution. "The most acute phase of the euro crisis appears to be definitely over," he said, "but this is no reason for us to relax."

Merkel and Monti held talks in Rome

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