PARIS (MNI) – The E30 billion contingency aid package for Greece
was agreed unanimously by all 16 Eurozone finance ministers on Sunday,
including Germany’s, and there is “no room” for disagreement or
questions, France’s Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Tuesday.
Lagarde told anglophone journalists at a breakfast press briefing
that as far as she was concerned the deal agreed was clear,
straightforward, and definitive.
She said that Germany did not seek to impose higher interest rates
on Greece than the ones stipulated in the package. She noted that the
communique issued by Eurozone finance ministers about the deal did not
stipulate that Greece could only request assistance as a “last resort.”
Lagarde said the Eurozone finance ministers decided it was a good
idea to emulate IMF practices in setting the interest rate. The
contingency package would only be activated in the event that Greece
formally requested it, the ECB and European Commission concurred, and
all sixteen Eurozone states unanimously approved.
She said that bilateral loans from each individual EMU state would
follow national procedures. She noted that in France such a loan would
require parliamentary approval, but that such approval could be obtained
within a week.
Lagarde said that the Greece deal shows that the Eurozone states
can act in unity providing “a new mechanism” which could be used in the
future. “We are effectively forging something new,” she said, “let’s
hope we never need it again. But should we, certainly we have shown we
can close ranks, come together, and come up with an agreement to address
the situation.”
–Paris newsroom: +33-142715540; bwolfson@marketnews.com
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