BERLIN (MNI) – The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) planned to be
set up by mid-2013 may require as much as E80 billion in capital from
Eurozone member states, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said
in an interview published over the weekend.
“This would be a possible dimension, but the question of the size
of the capital has not yet been finally decided,” Schaeuble told the
German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).
Germany would have to contribute between E14 billion to E22 billion
in capital to the ESM, weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported at the
weekend, citing German Finance Ministry officials. The capital is to be
paid into the ESM over a period of three to five years, the magazine
wrote.
But lawmakers from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right
CDU/CSU-FDP coalition oppose these plans, Der Spiegel wrote. “A cash
injection of E22 billion is out of the question,” the magazine quoted
CDU/CSU parliamentary budget spokesman Norbert Barthle as saying.
The German guarantees for the European Financial Stability Facility
(EFSF) — the current rescue fund for ailing Eurozone member states —
are to be raised to above E200 billion from E123 billion in order to
allow the facility to lend out its full rescue fund volume of E440
billion, Der Spiegel wrote.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22-62-05-80, email: twidder@marketnews.com
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