Euro fireproofs itself on the cheap As always with the eurozone's congenital need for laborious compromise, a long quest for a more secure financial firewall has resulted in improved protection against a sovereign debt conflagration but continued gambling with the bloc's own economies and the rest of the world's goodwill. Finance ministers meet on Friday to decide how much money to make available to their two rescue funds in the transition from the temporary European Financial Stability Facility to the permanent European Stability Mechanism next year. They are likely to agree on what seems to be German chancellor Angela Merkel's final offer. If so, the nearly €200bn in lending committed by the EFSF to Greece, Ireland and Portugal will be financed separately on top of the long-mooted €500bn firepower of the ESM. The EFSF's remaining lending capacity - the triple A rated members" guarantees amount to €440bn - will expire, but not immediately as originally foreseen. Instead, the unused EFSF funds will top up the ESM's until the latter reaches full capacity, so that the full €500bn uncommitted money is available from the start. Flexing the eurozone's fiscal muscle is the right way to calm self-fulfilling panics in sovereign debt markets while respecting the bloc's legal and political requirements. Flexing it more would be even better. The bigger the funds, the lower the chance of having to use them and so the smaller the risk of renewing the political battles that strain Europe's solidarity. Those who have always resisted going beyond the minimum have now trapped themselves behind lines in the sand: in Germany's case, its €211bn maximum guarantee for EFSF loans. Ms Merkel has gone the whole way up to this self-imposed limit; but it is insufficient to pack the €1tn or so punch that Brussels wants by adding the whole EFSF to the ESM. The Commission is concerned that Europe does enough to induce other powers to contribute through the International Monetary Fund. Though it is a travesty for the eurozone to have made itself dependent on IMF funds, now that it has it is reckless of the bloc to play chicken with other IMF shareholders. They will hopefully be more responsible than Europe. All could still go well - €500bn is enough for the most likely calls on the EFSF/ESM: top-ups of existing rescues or funds to recapitalise banks. By venturing into medium-term bank funding, the European Central Bank has bought time. But this raises the risk of complacency, in creditor as well as debtor states.