This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
Eleven countries first began to use the euro in nineteen ninety-nine. Today seventeen of the twenty-seven members of the European Union are in the euro area.
1999年，11个国家率先使用欧元。今天，欧盟27个成员国中有17个国家进入欧元区（即使用欧元）。
The euro's foreign exchange value has remained strong against the dollar and other currencies. But economic growth in the euro area was only two-tenths of one percent from April to June. Europe's biggest economy, Germany, grew at half that rate.
欧元汇率一直对美元和其它货币保持坚挺。但今年4到6月，欧元区经济增长仅为0.2%，欧洲最大经济体德国的经济增长仅为0.1%。
Ireland, Portugal and Greece have all required rescues. Greece received emergency loans twice.
爱尔兰、葡萄牙和希腊都已寻求经济救助。希腊已经获得两轮紧急贷款。
Debt and other problems in southern Europe remain a big concern. Last week, the European Central Bank bought more than thirty billion dollars in Italian and Spanish debt securities.
欧洲南部的债务和其它问题依然严重。上周，欧洲央行购买了超过300亿美元的意大利和西班牙债券。
Italy and Spain have yet to recover from the worldwide recession. The purchases of their government debt helped reduce their borrowing costs, but the bank will probably have to act again.
意大利和西班牙尚未从全球经济衰退中恢复，欧洲央行购买他们的政府债券有助于降低其借贷成本，但欧洲央行可能被迫再次出手。
On Tuesday German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met in Paris. They discussed economic governance for the euro area and cooperation on budget and tax policies. Chancellor Merkel said, "We want France and Germany to move closer in terms of fiscal integration." President Sarkozy agreed that the two neighbors must move closer on budget issues.
周二，德国总理默克尔和法国总统萨科奇在巴黎会晤。他们讨论了欧元区的经济治理以及预算和税收政策上的合作。默克尔表示，“我们希望法国和德国在财政一体化方面加强合作。”萨科奇总统赞同这两个相邻国家在预算问题上必须加强合作。
Their proposal calls for a "true European economic government." It would include the leaders of the seventeen euro countries and would be led by the European Union president. The current president is Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium. The group would meet at least twice a year.
他们提议建立一个真正的欧洲经济政府，它将包括17个欧元区成员国的领导人，并由欧盟主席领导。现任欧盟主席是来自比利时的赫尔曼·范龙佩（Herman Van Rompuy）。这一经济政府每年将至少召开两次会议。
注：从后面的描述来说，true European economic government翻译成欧元区经济政府更为合适。
One goal would be to control budget deficits for euro area countries. Rules limit the deficits of EU members to three percent of the size of their economies. But many members, including France, have bigger deficits than that.
这一提议的目标之一是控制欧元区国家的预算赤字。欧盟相关章程将成员国的赤字限制在经济规模的3%，但包括法国在内的许多成员国的赤字都远超这一水平。
注：法国财政赤字2010年为7%，2009年为7.5%。
The two leaders also proposed a tax on financial dealings in Europe. But they did not support the idea of euro bonds. These would be loans guaranteed by all euro countries instead of only the governments seeking them.
两国领导人还提议对欧洲金融交易征税，但他们并不支持发行欧元债券的想法。这种债券将是由所有欧元区国家担保的贷款，而不仅仅是寻求贷款的国家。
The European Commission says it supports the French and German proposals. The commission proposes and enforces legislation for the EU. On Wednesday, EU spokesman Olivier Bailly said the calls for an economic government were a step in the right direction.
欧盟委员会表示他们支持法国和德国的提议。该委员会负责欧盟立法的提议和执行。周三，欧盟发言人奥利维尔·贝利（Olivier Bailly）表示，呼吁成立经济政府是向正确的方向迈出的一步。
OLIVIER BAILLY: "We already mentioned the need to strengthen the economic part of the economic and monetary union. What is happening now since the beginning of the crisis and what has been announced yesterday as a proposal by France and Germany go exactly in this direction."
贝利：“我们已经提到了加强这个经济与货币联盟(指欧盟)在经济方面的合作的需求。本次危机以来正在进行的事情，以及德法两国昨天提出的建议都在朝着这个方向迈进。”
But many experts question whether European countries will be willing to surrender individual powers and deal with their debt problems together.
但许多专家质疑欧洲国家是否愿意交出独立处置的权力共同解决债务问题。
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