tommy271
Forumer storico
Greek Fin Min: Euro Zone Will Emerge From Crisis Stronger
ATHENS (Dow Jones)--The Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said Thursday that the euro zone will come out of the crisis stronger than ever.
"Europe will rise to the challenge even if it has delayed at times in taking action until the last minute and I am totally convinced it will exit the current crisis," Papaconstantinou said at a conference.
The finance minister said that there are three critical discussions currently taking place in Europe and these include reinforcing framework agreements to monitor public finances, regulatory reform of the financial system and the need to adopt policies for growth.
"Current European Union public finance monitoring has proven to be insufficient and we need a permanent crisis mechanism, even though there is currently no detailed agreement on the participation of private investors," the Finance Minister said.
Last month Germany put forth the idea that after 2013 any country that enters the European crisis mechanism should require private investors holding its debt to share the burden of any possible writedowns in the value of interest payments or even the principal amount owed to them by the government.
On the matter of financial system reform, Papaconstantinou backed the idea of a Tobin tax--a tax on financial transactions--that should be collected and contributed to a crisis fund to support indebted countries.
Addressing the need for growth in Europe, the finance minister said that while Greece has to follow a difficult fiscal consolidation path, "all of Europe cannot slam on the brakes because that will backfire and damage our ability to rein in deficits."
"Greece also supports the idea of e-bonds [euro bonds] to support the whole zone and the debt problem of several individual countries," Papaconstantinou added.
Recently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she was opposed to the idea of issuing e-bonds and was sharply criticized for doing so by the head of the Euro Group of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker.
***
Le posizioni di Papaconstantinou.
ATHENS (Dow Jones)--The Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said Thursday that the euro zone will come out of the crisis stronger than ever.
"Europe will rise to the challenge even if it has delayed at times in taking action until the last minute and I am totally convinced it will exit the current crisis," Papaconstantinou said at a conference.
The finance minister said that there are three critical discussions currently taking place in Europe and these include reinforcing framework agreements to monitor public finances, regulatory reform of the financial system and the need to adopt policies for growth.
"Current European Union public finance monitoring has proven to be insufficient and we need a permanent crisis mechanism, even though there is currently no detailed agreement on the participation of private investors," the Finance Minister said.
Last month Germany put forth the idea that after 2013 any country that enters the European crisis mechanism should require private investors holding its debt to share the burden of any possible writedowns in the value of interest payments or even the principal amount owed to them by the government.
On the matter of financial system reform, Papaconstantinou backed the idea of a Tobin tax--a tax on financial transactions--that should be collected and contributed to a crisis fund to support indebted countries.
Addressing the need for growth in Europe, the finance minister said that while Greece has to follow a difficult fiscal consolidation path, "all of Europe cannot slam on the brakes because that will backfire and damage our ability to rein in deficits."
"Greece also supports the idea of e-bonds [euro bonds] to support the whole zone and the debt problem of several individual countries," Papaconstantinou added.
Recently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she was opposed to the idea of issuing e-bonds and was sharply criticized for doing so by the head of the Euro Group of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker.
***
Le posizioni di Papaconstantinou.
