–FinMin Ponders On ESM Coming Into Effect Before 2013; Press
BERLIN (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a television
interview on Sunday, again rejected the idea of Greece leaving the
Eurozone.
Speaking to Germany’s ARD public television, Merkel said an exit of
Greece would invite a cascade of market attacks on other Eurozone member
states. At the end only Germany and a small group of other member states
would be left in the monetary union ,that would then “lose all the
advantages of the euro.” In the end, “nobody would invest its money in
Europe anymore,” she warned.
The Chancellor, in the interview, also reaffirmed that only the
European Stability Mechanism (ESM), planned for mid-2013, will allow an
orderly state insolvency.
“I don’t rule out at all that at some point we will have the
question whether one can do an insolvency of states just like with
banks,” Merkel said.
Meanwhile, German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that the
German finance ministry ponders on starting the ESM as early next year.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said at the margins of the
IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington that if the ESM could come into
effect before mid-2013 “we would have nothing against it.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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