Two months into his stint at the helm of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi has followed a fairly orthodox view of the institution’s responsibilities and limitations. As European leaders gathered in Brussels for the latest summit aimed at shoring up the euro, the ECB’s new president announced a raft of measures to help the region’s deeply troubled banks. But he signalled that the region’s sovereigns would have to look to themselves for salvation.

From December 21, the ECB will launch two new refinancing operations which will last three years and provide unlimited liquidity to European lenders. The collateral requirements banks must meet to make use of these facilities will also be relaxed. These are sensible moves. With €230bn of eurozone bank debt falling due in the first quarter of 2012 alone, and funding increasingly hard to access for a number of banks, the extra support is sorely needed.

There will be no such help for Europe’s sovereigns, however. Not only did Mr Draghi rule out ramping up the ECB’s purchases of European government debt. He also ruled out any attempt to do so on the sly, such as by funnelling ECB money to the IMF and allowing it to do the purchasing.