Merkel 'very pleased' Cyprus deal averted insolvency

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she was "very pleased" that a bailout agreement had been reached for Cyprus which averted an imminent financial meltdown. "I am very pleased that a solution for Cyprus was successfully reached last night which meant that the country's insolvency was averted," she said in a statement released by the chancellery. The deal represents a "fair distribution" of the burden and "also requires those who have contributed to causing these undesirable developments to take responsibility", she said. "And that's as it should be." Merkel said: "On the one hand, the banks must take responsibility for themselves. That's what we have always said. We don't want taxpayers having to save banks but that banks save themselves." But she added that Cyprus could also count on European solidarity, although that entailed Nicosia making its own efforts in areas such as privatisation, structural reforms and increasing tax rates. Earlier German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the bailout agreed for Cyprus was a fair deal that will restore shaken faith in the debt-laden country. "The result is a fair one for everybody involved," Schaeuble told a news conference after the 11th-hour agreement was sealed between Cyprus and its international lenders. "It is the best path possible even if it isn't an easy one." Cyprus's banks faced collapse without restructuring, which would have pushed the state to default and possibly to exit the euro.  The deal will help "stabilise the situation in Cyprus and help Cyprus back onto a path of sustainable consolidation. I think the solution can help win back lost confidence for and in Cyprus," added Schaeuble.Separately, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the size of the bailout demonstrates Europe's solidarity with Cyprus. "You need to remember that an aid package of around 10 billion euros has just been agreed -- considering the size of the Cypriot economy, that is a dimension that no other European aid package has reached," he told journalists. Seibert expressed confidence that the German parliament would approve the bailout agreement.