Eurozone: 20th summit needed? - FT.com Nineteenth crisis summit or - with apologies to the Rolling Stones - nineteenth nervous breakdown? The eurozone has been in a surprisingly good mood in the 10 days since its leaders held their latest last-ditch meeting. Ireland returned to the financial markets this week for the first time since its bailout in late 2010. There was rejoicing in Spain over a successful bond auction (or was it the football?). Italy announced another €26bn of spending cuts. Greece is still bouncing along the bottom. European stock markets are up 5 per cent. The summit balanced Germany's austerity agenda with more emphasis on growth at the insistence of France, Spain and Italy. It started the overdue process of severing the link between bank and sovereign debt. And it laid the groundwork for a banking union without which the euro cannot survive. All of that is constructive. Yet it will do little to resolve the eurozone's pressing problems - a mix of excessive debt, tottering banks, and uncompetitive economies causing a lack of access to financial markets. That is what markets are saying, at least. Spain's 10-year borrowing cost was 5 per cent in July 2010 and 6 per cent in July 2011. In July 2012 it is hovering around 7 per cent. Italy's 10-year yield is 6 per cent, the same as a year ago; it was 4 per cent in 2010. That suggests that the direction of travel is a straight line. Only Ireland, of the affected countries, has reason to feel pleased with the summit. Not only did its debt agency raise €500m from private investors on Thursday, but it could even get some (limited) relief from its mountain of nationalised bank debt. Governments and bankers appear more realistic about what they need to do than they were a few weeks ago. But as Mick and the boys sang (back in the day), it is still true to say of the euro: "When you were a child you were treated kind/But you were never brought up right."