Obama: 'Very concerned' about events in Europe (by Greg Robb)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - President Barack Obama said Thursday he is very concerned about events in Europe and there remains an open question whether the leaders have the political will to end the crisis. At a brief press conference, Obama said he supports a plan to alter European Union treaties backed Monday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to put fiscal policies of EU member states under greater central control. "But there is a short-term crisis that has to be resolved to make sure that markets have confidence that Europe stands behind the euro," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to push them in a good direction on this," Obama said. Europe is "wealthy enough" to solve the crisis, he said. "It is not as if we're talking about some impoverished country that doesn't have any resources and is being buffeted by world markets," Obama said. "If they muster the political will, they have the capacity to settle markets down and make sure that they are acting responsibly and that governments like Italy are able to finance their debt," he said.