Published on 29 Jun 2012 by RussiaToday

After a tough night of wrangling, EU leaders have agreed to set up a new authority - tasked with keeping sinking banks afloat. And to do that, the new agency will be given access to Europe's mammoth bailout funds - stocked in a large part by taxpayer money. This exact function was previously carried out by governments. But now, the EU can bailout a nation's banks - without adding to the government's debt levels - at least on the books. It's something that Germany strongly opposed, but was forced to relent on due to Spanish and Italian insistence. Nigel Farage, a member of the European Parliament and leader of the UK Independence Party, believes that it's Germany who plays the deciding role in these talks.