BRUSSELS (MNI) – The European Union’s Vice President for Economic
and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, said Tuesday that the financial
resources of Europe’s temporary and permanent bailout mechanisms should
be combined to create a more powerful firewall.
Rehn said Europe needs to show that it has committed substantial
resources to its firewall before an agreement can be reached to increase
the resources of the International Monetary Fund.
“Europe needs to take action before IMF resources can be
increased,” Rehn told a press conference here.
Combining the resources of the temporary European Financial
Stability Facility with the permanent European Stability Mechanism would
create firewall with spending power of about E750 billion.
On other topics, Rehn said that there were no plans currently to
ease the conditions for Portugal’s E78 billion bailout, following a
decision by Eurozone finance ministers early Tuesday to do that for
Greece.
However, he noted that the next review of Portugal by the troika —
the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank — is due to be completed
next week. “I reserve the right to take a look at that” report before
commenting further, Rehn said.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble recently said in
recorded comments to Portugal’s Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar that he
was willing to consider easier conditions for Portugal once the Greek
bailout was completed.
–Brussels newsroom; jduffy@marketnews.com
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