FRANKFURT (MNI) – EU officials will allow governments one more year
to provide support to their respective banking and industrial sectors in
order to offset the lingering effects of the financial crisis, European
Commissioner for Competition Joaquim Almunia told the Financial Times.
However, the Commission hopes to return to a “normal regime from
2012 onwards,” Almunia said in an interview conducted on Monday and
published in Tuesday’s edition of the business daily.
“On present analysis, we are not yet in a position to return to a
normal regime,” Almunia said. “We know there are still some
institutions…that need this public support through public capital
injections,” he said, citing the current situation in Ireland, as well
as problems in certain parts of the German banking system.
“(But) we want to be in a position of adopting a normal regime from
2012 onwards. During 2011, we will gradually phase out the present
regime,” he continued.
Almunia stressed that the Commission would place “a lot of
pressure” on banks to produce restructuring plans to wean themselves off
of state assistance and become viable once again.
Addressing a question on whether this could be interpreted as a
threat to Germany’s state-owned banks, which had so far failed to
restructure themselves adequately, Almunia said,” it’s not a threat,
it’s a communication.
“And it would not be a surprise to some of the authorities
responsible for the Landesbanken, who have learnt this message directly
from me, at this same table.”
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; e-mail: frankfurt@marketnews.com —
[TOPICS: MT$$$$,M$$FX$,M$$EC$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$]
