The ECB is regarded as having provided a sticking-plaster rather than a cure for what ails the eurozone.

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IMF, but it will be a mere sticking-plaster over a festering financial wound.

ECONOMIST: A puzzling progress

"There are the short-term sticking-plaster steps of a proper firewall to prevent contagion around Europe, a much more decisive settlement for Greece... strengthening the European banks, " he told Sky News.

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But we need a long term solution to this, not just this short-term sticking plaster.

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That is why investors see any purchases by the European Central Bank of Spanish and Italian debt as - at best - a sticking plaster.

BBC: How ECB failed to reassure investors

The policies have been described as a "sticking plaster" or just "one-piece of the jigsaw".

BBC: Social care - the next big issue?

The question then for the countries with warships in the region is this: Do they have the long-term commitment to keep funding a force that is at best a sticking plaster for the problem?

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