Europe doing too little, too late: World Bank chief

“European politicians always act a day late and promise one euro too little. Then, when it gets tight, they add new liquidity,” Zoellick told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel in its latest edition.

While the European Central Bank, via its liquidity moves, has bought the region’s leaders time, it has done little to address the currency bloc’s structural problems, Zoellick said.

Nevertheless, urgent action was needed without delay, he said.

“It’s no longer so much about which model the Europeans choose. They should just decide on one. Quickly.”

If Europe continued to dither, it would lose global influence, Zoellick warned and urged Germany to take a leadership role and keep pushing for fiscal and structural reforms.