BERLIN (MNI) – The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF)
must be put in a position to lend all of its E440 billion if necessary,
EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a newspaper interview
published Monday.
“As part of a complete package it makes sense to increase the
actual borrowing amount of the EU rescue fund, EFSF, and to enlarge the
field of activity of the fund,” Rehn told German daily Die Welt.
“If you buy a Mercedes with 440 horsepower than you want to have
440 horsepower and not just a large part of it,” he explained.
EFSF head Klaus Regling said Thursday that in order to preserve its
‘AAA’ rating the EFSF can currently lend only around E250 billion.
Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker told German weekly Der
Spiegel in an interview published Sunday that “On this question there
exists a consensus among European heads of governments: We don’t want to
increase the fund, we just want to take care [to ensure] that it
actually reaches its planned size.”
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German regional
daily Tagesspiegel in an interview published Sunday that the CDU/CSU-FDP
government coalition has agreed to support the plan to make all of the
EFSF’s E440 billion available to borrowers.
German Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle proposed in an interview
with German weekly Welt am Sonntag (WamS), published Sunday, that the
EFSF could use different interest rates on the debt it raises to help
boost its effective lending capacity.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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