If the EU finance ministers decide tonight to go with our proposal, the DG ECFIN of the European Commission could, as early as tomorrow, issue new debt securities on the international markets, to lend ‘back-to-back’ to any Euro-zone country – were the need for it to arise.
This ‘buffer’, this signal to the market is needed now.
The mechanism is simple. Upon a decision of the Council of finance ministers, the Commission borrows on the market to lend the funds back to any member state facing difficulties, with strong fiscal and macroeconomic conditionality.
This operation has no direct financial consequences for EU citizens, as the money is not borrowed by the states but by the European Union. Plus the EU budget is not directly affected: the operations are carried out ‘off-budget’. In fact, the only thing which is asked from Member States and their citizens is to back their partner(s) in difficulty, which is the very principle of any kind of “Union”.
The natural rule of solidarity applies to the current circumstances: individual actions are always more expensive than collective ones.
For further information please contact Brian Synnott on +32 474 98 96 75 (brian.synnott@pes.org)
