BRUSSELS (MNI) – European governments should increase the financial
capacity of any permanent stability mechanism and possibly even of
today’s EFSF bailout fund, Belgium Finance Minister Didier Reynders said
Monday.
“We need to do more for the stability in Europe,” Reynders said on
the sidelines of a meeting with fellow European finance ministers.
On the one hand, “we need better implementation of the Stability
and Growth Pact” and all Eurozone member states “need to go faster to a
balanced budget,” Reynders said.
The other key decision would be “to give more capacity to the
European stability mechanism for the future and maybe already for the
facility now.”
“I am sure that it is important to do that for the permanent
mechanism. But if we are deciding that, why not with the [current] one?
But the first decision is for the permanent mechanism for the future,”
Reynders told reporters.
Asked whether he would support reducing the interest rates that
Greece and Ireland have to pay on emergency loans from their European
partners, Reynders evaded a direct answer twice and instead said that it
was key “to have the same treatment for all the member states.”
“We need to apply the same rules for all the member states and so
we will compare the situation in Ireland and in Greece and then we will
say something after the meeting,” Reynders said.
–Frankfurt bureau, +49-69-720142, jtreeck@marketnews.com
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