THE REUNION OF EU LEADERS OF OCTOBER 23RD Angela Merkel quashes hope: "The solution to the crisis? - Keep dreaming!"

The hope that the sovereign debt crisis would be solved at the reunion of the heads of the EU states, one week from now, was shot down by Angela Merkel, German chancellor, whose spokesperson, (Steffen Seibert) said yesterday, in a press conference in Berlin: "Dreams that everything will be resolved and dealt with by next Monday [n.n. - through financial aid measures for Greece and other countries], cannot be fulfilled".

The reunion which was initially scheduled for October 16th and 17th, was postponed until Sunday (October 23rd), claiming that lawmakers need more time to come up with the final, the be-all and the end-all solution, of the crisis of which the main target is Greece, followed by the need to ensure the security of the European banking system and finally, the prevention of the spreading of the sovereign debt crisis to Italy and Spain.

Last weekend, at the G20 reunion in Paris, the finance ministers and the governors of the central banks had approved parts of the emergency plan intended to avoid the default of Greece and the contagion curve, as well as to enact measures intended to strengthen banks.

The responsibility for the full plan was left to the EU Reunion to be held at the end of this week.

All these good intentions, combined with the rumor launched by the "Sunday Times" that China had secretly expressed its willingness to put tens of billions of Euros in the Eurozone, in exchange for acquiring infrastructure elements in the "afflicted" countries, have fueled the hopes of avoiding the European collapse, brought about by the recent downgrades of Italy, Spain and of tens of European banks, by ratings firms.

"China wants to be sure that Europe knows the size of the hole and that it won't get any bigger before they agree to fill it", a Chinese source of the delegation which attended the G20 reunion allegedly said.

It needs to be reminded that not more than a month ago, the head of China"s Sovereign Fund (which has an equivalent value of several hundred billion Euros), said, in agreement with the head of the Chinese state, that the fund was not conceived for the rescue of the European Union.

Still, the rumors assert that this time, the Chinese had promised financial support, on the condition of increased budgetary discipline of the overindebted countries, a rumor which, (aside the fact that it revealed a unusual facet of Chinese communist regime, similar to that of an international financial body such as the IMF) has encouraged the markets to strengthen the Euro against the dollar.

...All until noon ...

When the statement by Angela Merkel rained on the parade.

The German Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble chipped in, saying that the "EU Summit would not provide a definitive solution to the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis".

Which made investors which had just bought the Euro feverishly sell it back, as if burned by its touch.

A report by the Bundesbank, which illustrated the deterioration of the German economy, laid the final nail in the coffin of the market"s frail optimism.

There are plenty of reasons why the next reunion of the EU, which so many pinned their hopes on, is going to fizzle.

If we are going to believe that Jean-Claude Trichet, who is still the president of the European Central Bank, wasn"t cheating us at the end of last week ("tricher" means "to cheat" in French), when he said that the European countries must enact immediate measures for recapitalizing the banks (the European interbank market had just entered a deadlock and we see no reasons why Trichet would have lied in that speech, before a commission of the European parliament, when the alarmist tone of his speech had been induced by the mandate of the team of financial market experts, subordinated to the ECB), then it would seem that the decisive moment of a strong intervention to prevent the European financial collapse has already been missed.

But, who knows ...

Perhaps the sale of European railways and ports and train stations to the Chinese will save Europe.

Whatever is left of it that will still be European ...