BRUSSELS (MNI) – European authorities must demonstrate their
ability to forge a comprehensive response to the Eurozone debt crisis if
they are to regain the confidence of financial markets, Jean-Claude
Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers, said
Saturday.
Speaking to journalists before a meeting of EU finance ministers,
Juncker, who is Prime Minister of Luxembourg, said that the Bank of
England could not be a model for the euro area’s efforts to shore up
trust.
Rather, he said that to restore confidence, “we have to prove today
and later next week [at a second summit of EMU leaders] that we are able
to deliver a comprehensive answer to the crisis we are at the epicenter
of, and this is a work which has been started yesterday because we
agreed on the guidelines for the interventions on the primary and on the
secondary market,” in addition to disbursing the sixth tranche of
financial aid for Greece.
Moreover, Juncker said that Friday’s Eurogroup meeting had
succeeded in determining two options for the leveraging of the European
Financial Stability Facility, which will be presented to the heads of
state and government for a decision. He declined to say which option
would be the likely choice.
Referring to his scathing criticism Friday evening of the Eurozone
member states’ manifest inability to reach an agreement and act with
more alacrity, Juncker said: “The ‘disaster’ I mentioned yesterday is
the fact that although one meeting should be sufficient, we are trying
to deal with the whole matter during two European Councils. One would
have been sufficient.”
He said Saturday’s meeting of EU finance ministers would focus on
bank recapitalization.
–Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69 720142. Email: dbarwick@marketnews.com
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