Softening stance on austerity?

As question marks hang over the European Union and the single currency created by the exclusive club which has enjoyed decades of integration, all eyes are firmly on the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who seems to be wielding the unenviable power of deciding the direction of its members.

In Brussels to attend a crisis summit on the fate of the euro, against a background of months of tension over the economic quagmire member-countries find themselves in, Europe’s leaders shared the hope that any agreement might pull the EU back from the brink.