BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Dutch
Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager and Finnish Finance Minister Jutta
Urpilainen said Friday at a joint press conference here that they favor
an increase of the role of the IMF in the Eurozone debt crisis.
“We need to build up the firewall and today we agreed that one
option to do that is also to strengthen the role of the IMF,” Urpilainen
said.
“We favor an enhanced and increased capacity of the IMF which, for
example, could be done by bilateral loans with all countries, European
countries and non-European countries,” de Jager explained. “We didn’t
discuss explicit sums, but the amount has to be substantial.”
Urpilainen added that “if there is nothing else left, then we can
think about the strengthening of the role of the ECB. But we prefer the
IMF and also the leverage of the EFSF.”
Schaeuble, however, stressed that “the independence of the ECB is a
very important pre-condition for the stability of the European
currency.”
In a joint written statement, the three finance ministers stressed
the need to strengthen the implementation of structural reforms and
budgetary discipline in vulnerable Eurozone member states.
“We firmly believe that improved budgetary and economic policies
are key to contributing towards solving the sovereign debt crisis,” they
underlined.
“To arrive at a true stability union with common fiscal policy
rules, automatic application of these rules and legal enforceability of
rules is of utmost importance,” the statement read.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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