<blockquote>'The Netherlands, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, laid out five options for tackling the risks posed by banks’ state-debt pile for the bloc’s 28 finance ministers to discuss in Amsterdam on Friday. Schaeuble backed the Dutch initiative, while others, led by the Italian, Pier Carlo Padoan, warned that changes could destabilize the financial system and said the issue was too big for Europe to crack on its own.
“It’s no surprise that enthusiasm for the Dutch proposals varied in degree,” Schaeuble told reporters on Saturday. “It’s also no surprise that we strongly backed the Dutch proposals.”
The EU faces a tough political battle over changes to the regulatory treatment of government bonds. The issue has become a focus of political debate in recent months because of Germany’s insistence that the euro area should reduce the risks banks are facing, including government debt on their balance sheets, before creating a common deposit insurance system to round out the so-called banking union.'
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Sovereign-Debt Debate Divides EU as Schaeuble Pushes for Limits, April 23, 2016</blockquote>
Context<blockquote>
'..the Great Depression .. was caused – like our crisis today – by too much debt.'</blockquote>