EURO FINANCE ministers will renew their efforts on Friday to iron out legal issues surrounding the €440 billion rescue fund for distressed single currency members after leaving key questions unanswered at the end of a seven-hour meeting.
At a press conference in Brussels early this morning, Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker declined to directly respond when asked about German demands for parliamentary approval every time the fund is activated. Other governments, notably France, are said to oppose any such requirement.
The meeting approved the transfer today of €14.5 billion in bilateral loans to Greece, which comes as the IMF prepares to lend €5.5 billion to the country.
Renewed uncertainty over the parameters of the rescue fund for all distressed euro countries comes amid pressure on the currency, which fell yesterday to its lowest level for more than four years and has dropped by 17 per cent in six months.
Mr Juncker, who said earlier yesterday that he was concerned about the pace of the currency’s decline, made a point of saying the euro was a credible currency, had maintained price stability for 11 years and would continue to do so.
Although Mr Juncker said it was not the case that the ministers expected to resolve all issues surrounding the rescue fund at their meeting last night, they have scheduled an extraordinary meeting on Friday to be held on the margins of wider discussion on budgetary surveillance in the EU.
The meeting last night followed an 11-hour negotiation last Sunday week over the loan guarantee scheme that will back up the fund. Mr Juncker said there was “nothing dramatic” at issue but was evasive when asked why a routine scheduled meeting had continued past midnight.
“Because we’re crazy,” he told reporters. “Madness is irrational, you can’t explain it.”
EU economics commissioner Olli Rehn declined to elaborate as to the precise nature of the outstanding questions but said “some technical details and legal matters” remained to be resolved.
Ministers discussed demands from the EU Commission for euro governments to open their budgets for European peer review before parliamentas part of an effort to compel member states to cut their debt.
Mr Juncker said the effort was not designed to interfere in the work of legislators saying ministers were agreed that the proposal advanced by Mr Rehn was a step in the right direction. He also praised new austerity plans from the Spanish and Portuguese governments as courageous.
