BRUSSELS (MNI) – The European Commission wants to get an agreement
today on a deal to aid Greece and any other Eurozone countries that
might get into difficulty, a Commission spokesperson told reporters.
Heavily-indebted Greece could need financial aid to refinance its
debts but Eurozone policymakers are divided over whether this aid should
come from within the currency bloc or from the International Monetary
Fund.
Officially the situation in Greece isn’t on the meeting’s agenda.
“We hope that there will be an opportunity to address the situation
in Greece [at the summit],” a spokesperson told reporters. “We will have
to see how the agenda develops in the next hours.”
“The Commission’s preference is that we agree this issue today, we
think that’s necessary,” the spokesperson added.
The Commission has proposed a “framework for coordinated
assistance” which could be activated if Greece needs aid. But German
Chancellor Angela Merkel told her parliament this morning that current
aid proposals contravene the EU laws as set out in the treaty. She
prefers a solution led by the International Monetary Fund and only used
as a last resort.
The EU Commission spokesperson said, “we are completely clear about
the compatibility of the solution with the treaty and with the
no-bailout clause.”
“This is solid rock from a legal point of view, this has had
technical work and legal work backing it,” a second spokesman said.
–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com
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