BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said
Friday he expects that the details of the financial aid package for
Ireland will be finalized by the start of next week.
Speaking in parliament, Schaeuble said Europe was currently in an
“extraordinarily critical and difficult” situation.
“I hope and expect that by the start of the week, the ECB, the
European Commission and the IMF will have made the necessary decisions”
on the aid package for Ireland, the Minister said.
“I also believe that we will reach a reasonable result in order to
swiftly overcome the worries of markets,” he added.
Schaeuble stressed it was Germany’s duty to keep the euro stable.
After the current EU rescue funds run out by mid-2013, a new
permanent crisis mechanism is needed, the Minister reaffirmed, again
stressing that creditors will have to shoulder a share of the losses
under the new rules.
“Naturally, we will have to involve creditors,” he said, explaining
that this will then be done by including collective action clauses in
new government bonds. “I’m convinced this will not unsettle markets but
rather calm them,” he said.
Meanwhile, German finance ministry spokesman Martin Kreienbaum
rejected a media report today which claimed that the ministry was
putting pressure on Portugal to also call for financial aid from its
Eurozone peers.
“We are assuming that the Portuguese efforts to get the budget back
on a proper and good path will be successful,” the spokesman said. The
Ministry thus sees no risk that Portugal will need to tap in the EU
rescue fund, he explained.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at the same press
conference that there is currently no need to ponder on increasing the
size of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).
“It is important to say that for the federal government the
enlargement of the rescue fund is not a topic,” he said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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