E.C.B. Under Pressure to Ride to the Euro's Rescue FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank must decide Wednesday whether to stand on principle and insist that political leaders take their turn at dealing with the euro zone's banking and debt crisis, or bend to market forces and once again ride to the rescue. Based on economic and market indicators, and a growing sense of public panic, the top officials at the central bank could easily justify a policy move when they hold their regular monthly meeting on Wednesday. The bank could, for example, cut the benchmark interest rate to a record low. Or it could flood commercial banks with more low-interest loans, something which worked to calming effect when it provided such infusions a few months ago. But members of the bank's governing council, and the bank president, Mario Draghi, might also be concerned that if they are too generous with monetary policy, the region's political leaders might be tempted to shirk the hard work of creating a more durable euro zone. Last week, in a rare public rebuke to the region's elected officials, Mr. Draghi outlined the steps he said were necessary to strengthen the euro currency union, including requiring member nations to take shared responsibility for bank bailouts. If he walks this tough talk, the central bank might not take action until political leaders have made tangible progress in that direction. To help leaders head down that path, the European Commission on Wednesday is expected to propose steps toward a so-called banking union - measures that would include requirements that nations set up funds to deal with failing banks, with the money possibly shared by countries, and give the national authorities greater scope to intervene in troubled banks. "With the euro-area crisis deteriorating, there is a lot of pressure on the E.C.B. to act - but in our view it is unlikely to announce any specific new measure this Wednesday," Silvio Peruzzo, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland, wrote Monday in a note to clients. Mr. Peruzzo said the central bank would wait until after a summit meeting of euro zone leaders planned for the end of the month. It is a fine line that Mr. Draghi and his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet, have walked since the debt crisis began more than two years ago. Both have seemed to resent being pushed into the role of lead crisis fighter because elected officials leaders cannot agree, or because they hope central bank policy can be a substitute for tough economic measures that would cost votes in the short term. Like Mr. Trichet, Mr. Draghi does not want to reward dithering or infighting by political leaders. At the same time, the central bank's ultimate priority is to preserve the euro zone; it cannot afford to stand so firm on principle that the currency union crumbles beneath it. During past episodes of heightened stress, the central bank has come to the rescue, as in December when it extended the maximum term of low-interest loans to banks to three years, up from one. But that move, which calmed tensions for several months, was implicitly a reward for political progress. Italy, with a new, technocratic president in place, had just stepped up efforts to improve its economy. And euro zone leaders had recently agreed on tough new rules to enforce prudent spending by governments. If anything, the sense of panic and doubts about the euro zone's future are even higher now than they were last autumn. The common currency has been trading near a two-year low against the dollar, euro zone unemployment is at a record of 11 percent, and Spain is trying to figure out how to pay for a bailout of its troubled banks. The heightened tension has led to speculation that the bank will have to act, perhaps by resuming its purchases of government bonds in the open market. Doing so might relieve pressure on the bonds of governments like Spain, whose interest rates have recently been spiking to potentially dangerous levels. But the central bank discouraged such hopes on Monday when it disclosed that it made no bond purchases last week, for the 12th week in a row. But while the pressure on the euro zone appears to investors to be acute, the central bank's policy makers may not be as alarmed. Not all market indicators are negative. For example, interest rates that banks pay to borrow money for short periods have plummeted, a result of those inexpensive three-year loans that the bank has dispensed since Mr. Draghi took office in November. "There is a difference between what we would like the E.C.B. to do and what will actually happen on Wednesday," Jens Sondergaard, senior European economist at Nomura, wrote in a note to clients. We are not sure conditions across the euro area have deteriorated sufficiently for the E.C.B. to take action.