Germany wants to force all EU member states to steal from savers' accounts

The Germans are trying to get an agreement to force all EU countries to adopt the Cypriot model of stealing peoples' savings to bail out failing banks.

We're from the ECB, we'd like the make a withdrawal

There was a lot of anger in Cyprus and around the world when the EU instructed the Cypriot government to freeze bank accounts and steal anything over €100k to pay its share of an EU bailout.  The Russians were particularly unhappy as they had invested heavily in Cyprus following the Russian government's decision to bail Cyprus out so they could avoid EU austerity.  It was this Russian bail out that resulted in the particularly punishing and degrading terms of the bail out Cyprus had to get from the EU when it was unable, under EU law, to give Russia preferential creditor status to secure more funding.

At the time, the Germans said they wanted the Cypriot method of stealing money off citizens and cancelling bonds owned by investors such as pension funds and charities to be the blueprint for future bailouts.  They backtracked when it was reported in the media and was widely condemned but have been quietly pushing for it behind the scenes.

Talks have been held in Luxembourg which have come to nothing with the Irish finance minister describing them as chaotic but €urozone finance ministers will meet again on Wednesday to try and get agreement.  The German plan is to create a €500bn bailout fund made available only to eurozone countries but the rules requiring the theft of savers' money to shore up failing banks will apply to all.