Harper arrives in Berlin as EU scrambles to contain currency crisis

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has arrived in Berlin in the eye of a European financial crisis.

During a quick stopover in Berlin to confer with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Harper was told that a $140 billion European Union aid package for Greece that was supposed to stop the slide will not suffice.

Merkel, appearing at a news conference with Harper at the German Chancelery, says “the stability of the eurozone as a whole is not guaranteed with this program alone.”

EU countries agreed late Friday in Brussels to new measures to curb market speculation and to speed up joint action if more countries founder.

Harper says financial sector reforms have not been happening as quickly as he would like in some countries, but he and Merkel both agreed the root problem is not market speculation.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced upon arrival in Berlin that five additional countries would be invited to the G20 summit: Ethiopia, Malawi, the Netherlands, Spain and Vietnam.

The prime minister started his day in Zagreb, where he met with the Croatian president before touring 800-year-old Zagreb Cathedral.

Harper’s five-day, four-country tour has focused primarily on G8 and G20 preparations and the re-emerging economic troubles caused by the Greek debt crisis in Europe. The Canadian delegation also took part this week in moving liberation ceremonies in Holland.

Harper’s stop in Berlin coincides with the 65th anniversary of Germany’s unconditional surrender to end the Second World War, signed in Berlin on May 8, 1945.

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