BRUSSELS (MNI) – The meeting of Eurozone finance ministers broke up
Friday evening with little apparent progress on ways to leverage the
firepower of Europe’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability
Facility (EFSF).
“We are discussing some options but we have to continue working
with the experts,” Spain’s Finance Minister Elena Salgado said as she
exited the meeting. “We have more work to do.”
France’s Finance Minister Francois Baroin said Greece was very much
at the heart of the talks Friday. The Eurogroup announced earlier that
it had approved the long-awaited E8 billion aid payment to Greece.
“Greece was the focus of talks today,” Baroin said. “For the rest,
we continue working. I think we are going in the right direction to
bring together the different points of view.”
Asked if the French proposal to turn the bailout fund, the European
Financial Stability Facility, into a bank was still on the table, Baroin
said the idea remained one of several under discussion. “What counts is
what works,” he said.
France’s proposal to give the EFSF a banking license so it can
access funds from the European Central Bank has been opposed by Germany
and by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet.
–Paris newsroom, +331-42-71-55-40; jduffy@marketnews.com
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