November 8, 2011
European finance ministers pledged to roll out a bulked-up rescue fund next month, leaving Greece and Italy on the front lines until then in the fight against the debt crisis.
Greece was ordered to provide written acceptance of bailout terms in order to win an 8 billion-euro ($11 billion) loan installment by the end of November, while Italy was pressed to turn budget-cut promises into reality.
Greece’s reforms “have to be carried out immediately, we cannot wait until there’s a new government, because that could be in March,” Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters today before the second day of a European finance meeting in Brussels. “We need confirmation in writing from all parties.”
Europe is battling to regain the upper hand in the debt crisis after political dramas in Greece and Italy provided unexpected distractions and soured international confidence in a package of measures hammered out last month.
“This isn’t a crisis you can solve quickly, it is a monster with many heads,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said late yesterday.
European officials are consulting investors and credit- rating companies over two options for translating the rescue fund’s 440 billion euros in guarantees into as much as 1 trillion euros of spending power.
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