Business | Economy
Greek bailout tops EU finance ministers' agenda
Bilateral loans are among the means being considered
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 March 15, 2010
Brussels: Finance ministers from countries using the euro hope to agree today on a way of providing heavily indebted Greece with financial aid, despite French doubts that a deal will be reached.
European policymakers are discussing how to help Greece and protect the 16-country currency zone but so far have not backed promises of political support with financial aid. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has resisted bailout pledges.
EU leaders have welcomed austerity measures announced by the Greek government and a poll Sunday showed most Greeks saw them as a step in the right direction, despite the street protests they have provoked. A senior EU source said at the weekend that among the means being considered to help Greece were bilateral loans and loan guarantees.
French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she did not expect any figure for aid to be announced at today's monthly meeting of the Eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels.
"I'm certainly not expecting any decision being made, or any button being pressed, or any button being selected to be pressed, because it's totally premature," she told reporters in New York.
Despite this, she said Greece had "delivered enormously" with its austerity steps which include promised spending cuts equal to two per cent of gross domestic product.
Under EU rules, neither the bloc as a whole nor individual member states can assume the debts of other countries. Greece should show it had taken steps to get its public finances in order before external help could be given, Ewald Nowotny, a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank, said on Austrian television.
On Saturday, Britain's Guardian newspaper quoted sources as saying today's meeting would agree to make up to 25 billion euros (Dh126 billion) of support available. The EU source said no figures were likely at this stage.
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