'No more money'
October 1, 2011
After German lawmakers approved the expansion of the eurozone bailout fund and a German contribution of 211 billion euros ($283 billion) this past week, the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble told the magazine Super Illu the country won't open its checkbook again.
"The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) has a ceiling of 440 billion euros, 211 billion of which is down to Germany. And that is it. Finished," he was quoted by the magazine as saying on Saturday.
Under the new terms, the EFSF will have new powers to buy up bonds of shaky economies or lend to governments before they reach full-blown crisis.
Germans will have to pony up even less for the European Stability Mechanism, which is to replace the EFSF by 2013, he said.
"Then it will only be a matter of 190 billion in total, including interest, for which we will be guarantors," he said.
The German people, however, are less sure than the finance minister. According to a new survey to be published Sunday in the weekly Bild am Sonntag, 78 percent of respondents believe that more money will be needed in the future of the rescue fund.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said stricter monitoring of debt-ridden countries should be put in place.
"A right to scrutiny and make recommendations isn't enough," he told the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday. "The states, which in the future will benefit from the solidarity of the rescue fund, should give the European authorities the right to intervene in their budgetary decisions."
Author: Holly Fox (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Sean Sinico