Germany opposes a phrase in a draft conclusion for Wednesday's EU summit that calls for the European Central Bank to continue buying bonds in the secondary market, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, sending the euro lower.
"This sentence is not agreed with us," she told reporters, adding that Germany did not want a declaration from politicians telling the ECB what to do.
Merkel left the question open of whether the ECB would itself make a statement on the issue.
According to a draft obtained by Reuters, euro zone leaders will call on the ECB to continue with its "non-standard measures in current exceptional circumstances," a phrase that EU sources said referred to the ECB's purchase of the bonds from countries like Italy and Spain.
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