Therefore, all the stuff that was invented about the spread is a real imbroglio. The truth is that the spread was used to try and bring down a majority voted by Italians. I was one of the 2-3 most influential leaders in the European Council...[but] I continuously opposed German proposals and demands. I said 'no' when Mrs Merkel was demanding that Greece suffered cuts which, in my opinion, would have brought Greece - as it then happened - almost to civil war. I said 'no' to the Tobin Tax...I said 'no' to the fiscal pact, and I even used the veto...to flag up that Italy could not commit to reducing its [public] debt by €50bn a year. 13.11 Greece has reached its debt buyback target of €30bn after extending the deadline to midday today, says Bloomberg: 13.00 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she trusts Italian voters to stick to the economic reforms put in place by outgoing prime minister Mario Monti, who was installed without an election last year. I support the reforms launched by Mario Monti's government which have led to financial investors regaining some confidence in Italy, so I am sure the Italian people will vote in such a way that Italy stays on the right path. Mario Monti and Angela Merkel 12.47 The Irish government has said it wants to close its IMF/ECB bail out programme next year as it looks to raise €10bn to cover its 2014 funding needs, through bond sales. Dublin is also lobbying the European Central Bank (ECB) to restructure the €31bn it provided to recapitalise the former Anglo Irish Bank, now known as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. Ireland received a €85bn bail out from the ECB and IMF in November 2010. Irish finance minister Michael Noonan 12.33 The OECD has just released its latest unemployment figures, showing joblessness in the euro area hit a record high of 11.7pc in October, after nudging up 0.1 percentage point, continuing an uninterrupted rise which began in July 2011. Unemployment in the US it also rose 0.1 percentage point to 7.9pc while it stayed the same in Canada (7.4pc) and Japan (4.2pc). More recent figures from the US and Canada show unemployment fell in the North American nations in November. OECD unemployment figures 12.10 Germany's foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has weighed in to the discussion on Italy's political fate, saying if the reforms put in place by outgoing prime minister Mario Monti are halted it will be a "dangerous development" for Europe. Germany foreign minister Guido Westerwelle 11.47 As the revised deadline for the Greek bond buyback plan looms, senior banking executives have told Reuters they expect Greek banks to offer more of their sovereign debt holdings to ensure the €30bn target is reached. Reuters reporters quote an unnamed banker at a major Greek lender saying: All banks will support the buyback, topping up their offers. The target of €30bn will be reached and may be exceeded. 11.44 The chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility Robert Chote told the Treasury Select Committee today that the loss of Britain's AAA credit rating might not have much impact on the public finances. It's not entirely clear that would be providing any new information to the markets they hadn't already been able to deduce. Read a full report by Telegraph deputy political editor James Kirkup here. 11.28 Director-General of the Bank of Italy Fabrizio Saccomanni is speaking at a business conference where he told delegates he expects the nation to exit recession by the end of next year. He also predicted the Basel III rules, which introduce more stringent capital requirements on banks among other things, will be delayed by up to a year to January 2013, a view which puts him at odds with Austrian banking supervisors who expect to see the rules come into force by July, and "certainly in the course of 2013." The rules were originally scheduled to pass in January 2013. 11.07 Now for something completely different. Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU Commission, is currently recording a conversation with Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker on the EU winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He tweeted this picture from the Nobel Committee meeting room: Barroso and Parker are having a conversation on the EU winning the Nobel Peace Prize 11.00 Over in Parliament, the Treasury Select Committee is grilling chairman of the Office of Budget Responsibility Robert Chote on the economic forecast put out after the Autumn Statement which revised growth downwards. The OBR said it expected the economy to shrink by 0.1pc this year, a downgrade on earlier estimates which forecast 0.8pc growth. Robert Chote, chairman of the Office of Budget Responsibility 10.49 And let's not forget tomorrow's meeting of EU finance ministers on the single supervisory mechanism, after last week's meeting ended in deadlock over how far the ECB's supervisory powers should extend. Italy's economy minister Vittorio Grilli has said it would be "very dangerous" to have separate rules for smaller lenders in a European banking union, speaking to a parliamentary commission. This view puts him at odds a draft compromise to be presented by the Cypriot finance minister tomorrow, which suggests that only the most major banks come under direct supervision by the ECB - an option preferred by Germany. Mr Grilli said: We are convinced that we should not get a deal at all costs. We don't have a deal yet, but we hope to get one. 10.25 Conflicting messages are coming from Germany this morning where a new report shows investor sentiment is soaring, while the German Economic Ministry is cautioning that German growth may weaken further in the fourth quarter. The Zew Economic Institute's investor confidence index surged to 6.9 points in December, the first positive reading since May and a jump from minus 15.9 points in November. Meanwhile, the government is blaming dwindling investment appetite and weak industrial output for dragging down the economy. 10.16 The markets have calmed after a knee-jerk reaction to Mario Monti's resignation announcement, which saw Italian stocks plummet and Italy's cost of borrowing jump up. Now Italian bond yields (cost of borrowing) are edging back down after an initial rise this morning, while the FTSE MIB in Milan is up 0.66pc. Italian 10-year bond yields (cost of borrowing) over last five days. Source: Bloomberg 09.58 Robert O'Daly, from the Economist Intelligence Unit, has spoken on Berlusconi's chances of an election win: Berlusconi has a mountain to climb to close the gap on the centre-left before Italians vote in the next general election, which will now probably be held in February 2013. According to recent opinion polls, public support for Mr Berlusconi's centre-right party is currently around 15%, compared with the centre-left's 30%. By adopting an anti-austerity, anti-Germany campaign message, he is seeking to erode existing support for pro-Monti centrists and at the same time tap the anti-establishment, Eurosceptic vote that has catapulted the Five Star Movement led by former comedian Beppe Grillo, into second place with about 20% in opinion polls. Berlusconi is a formidable campaigner. In 2008 he almost succeeded in catching Romano Prodi's centre-left in the general election race. On that occasion, however, the gap was smaller at around ten percentage points. 09.23 Yesterday we reported the Greek bond buyback plan has been extended to midday today, leaving just under three hours for Athens to raise the remaining €3.5bn needed to hit its €30bn target. The nation's biggest banks agreed to participate in the programme by original deadline of 5pm Friday, amounting to €26.5bn in offers for debt buyback. Athens plans to buy the bonds back at a third of their value, with the overall aim of buying €30bn debt for €10bn.