BERLIN (MNI) – German Economics Minister Philipp Roesler said
Thursday that the European Central Bank was independent and could take
whatever decisions it deemed necessary in the current crisis.
Talking to reporters at the sidelines of a conference on
competition organized by his ministry, Roesler was asked if the
government still opposed a bigger role for the ECB in fighting the
debt crisis.
“The independence of the ECB must be assured,” Roesler replied.
“That is why it has to decide in the scope of its decision competence
what it deems to be right.”
The German government still aims to defend the euro by making the
Eurozone a stability union and not by collectivizing national debt,
Roesler reaffirmed. “We still firmly oppose eurobonds,” he stressed.
In his speech at the conference, Roesler proposed that the planned
European Stability Mechanism (ESM) should be turned into an European
Monetary Fund (EMF).
The EMF “should have far reaching possibilities similar to the
International Monetary Fund,” he said.
Roesler also said that the deficit limit set under the EU Stability
and Growth Pact should be lowered to 2% of GDP from 3% in the medium
term.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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