View original document

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

eu2010 - Ecofin reached an agreement on a loan package of more than 500 billion euros for exceptional cases
http://www.eu2010.es/en/documentosynoticias/noticias/may10finalsalgado.html

MAY

Go

2009 2010

Bienvenido
Benvingut

Contact

A

A

HOME

Documents & News

Close

2011

Help

Welcome
Benvido

Search:

THE SPANISH PRESIDENCY

You are here : Home

SEP

15

3 captures
13 May 10 - 19 Sep 11

A

SEP

AGENDA

DOCUMENTS & NEWS

THE EUROPEAN UNION

Bienvenue
Ongi etorri

Enter search term

SPAIN IN FOCUS

PRESS

News

CFSP Statements

Back

Print

Related information

Other declarations

Extraordinary Ecofin meeting

Conclusions
Speeches

Ecofin reached an agreement on a loan package of
more than 500 billion euros for exceptional cases

Articles

Principal results of the ECOFIN
Council (provisional version in
English) [PDF]

Interviews
10-05-2010

Press releases

Event calendar

Background Notes /
Documents

SEPTEMBER, 2010
News

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu

Multimedia gallery

Fri

Sat

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

See the calendar for:
TOP SEARCHES

Science

EU

European
Council
European
Council

Security

Economy UE
Education Justice

Culture

Nature

The Second Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Finance Minister, Elena Salgado

After a meeting in Brussels lasting more than eleven hours, which finished in the early
hours of Monday morning, the Economy and Finance Council (Ecofin) reached an
agreement on a loan package of more than 500 billion euros allocated to cover the
needs of members with solvency problems and to defend the euro.
The European stabilisation mechanism includes an aid facility to balance of payments
to a value of 60 billion euros, with the Union's own resources as guarantee, plus 440
billion in funds or guarantees supplied by the Eurozone member states, as well as a
quantity from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the value of at least half of
Europe's contribution.
The agreed aid package will be added to the 110 billion euros that has been assigned
to the rescue of Greece, which the Europeans and the IMF will begin to pay out
immediately.
The Second Vice President of the Spanish Government and Minister of Economy and
Finance, Elena Salgado, stressed in a press conference that the extraordinary Ecofin
meeting, called by the Spanish Presidency of the EU, intended to set in motion
financial stability mechanisms, as well as preserving financial stability in Europe, and

https://web.archive.org/web/20100915002201/http://www.eu2010.es/en/documentosynoticias/noticias/may10finalsalgado.html[2/17/2015 4:50:08 PM]

Social networks

Facebook
MySpace
Hi5
Tuenti
Linkedin
Dejaboo
Twitter

ok

eu2010 - Ecofin reached an agreement on a loan package of more than 500 billion euros for exceptional cases
in particular, in the Eurozone.
Salgado indicated that in that meeting a commitment to fiscal sustainability was
reached to help the economic growth of all member states, and added that the
measures include plans that “should be speeded up”.
In this context, she added that there is a commitment to make advances in the
regulation and supervision of the Financial System and, in particular, in derivative
products and qualification agencies (rating), as well as speeding up processes for
managing the crisis.

To speed up fiscal consolidation in Spain
Elena Salgado assured that the "exceptional circumstances" facing the Eurozone made
it advisable to speed up fiscal consolidation in Spain, and explained that a greater
reduction of the deficit in 2010 and 2011, "is not additional" to the consolidation already
forseen for the period of 2010-2013, but that it meant bringing the effort forward to the
first two years.
The plan consists of an additional reduction of 0.5 percent in 2010, which is added to
the supplimentary 0.5 percent agreed in March, and the additional one percent in
2011.
The Spanish Minister of Economy and Finance recalled that last Friday all the leaders
had confirmed that the Eurozone was experiencing exceptional circumstances that
required exceptional responses, and that they had all committed themselves to
speeding up fiscal consolidation.
"Consoldiation has become more important that growth", stated Salgado when
questioned about the efects that the adjustment may have on Spain's economic
growth.
In this context, Salgado announced that Spain will present its specific measures on 18
May in a new Ecofin meeting and stated that the President of the Spanish government,
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will explain the details on Wednesday in Spain's
Congress of Deputies.
Portugal also announced to its European partners that it will increase its efforts at fiscal
adjustment.
The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, affirmed
in the same press conference that “we are talking about the financial stability of the
Eurozone as a whole”, and said that the European Commission has presented specific
proposals to guarantee financial stability in Europe.
After stating that there is a total, solid commitment to bring the process of fiscal
consolidation forward, Rehn added that both Spain and Portugal “ have expressed a
clear commitment to adopt measures within a short period of time”.
Asked what was considered to be “exceptional cases”, Olli Rehn stated that “in the
Eurozone there have been systematic attacks, which is considered to be exceptional
circumstances that prove to be too much for the affected member state".

Measures by the European Central Bank (ECB)
The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to adopt a series of exceptional
measures on the debt and currency markets, in order to contribute to the stabilization
of the Eurozone. .
These are "very significant operations", announced Olli Rehn, who referred questions
to the ECB for details.
In a statement, the ECB informed, specifically, that it had decided to intervene in public
and private debt markets to ensure liquidity in financial segments that are
dysfunctional.
The Government Council has taken this decision after the commitment by European
finance ministers early this morning to adopt "all necessary measures to reach fiscal

https://web.archive.org/web/20100915002201/http://www.eu2010.es/en/documentosynoticias/noticias/may10finalsalgado.html[2/17/2015 4:50:08 PM]

eu2010 - Ecofin reached an agreement on a loan package of more than 500 billion euros for exceptional cases
objectives this year and in the years that follow, in line with procedures for excessive
deficits".
The ECB noted, in particular, the additional commitments announced by some
countries (Spain and Portugal), which will speed up fiscal consolidation..
In order to neutralise the impact of these operations on debt markets, the ECB will
undertake specific operations to reabsorb the liquidity injected into the system, so that
the entity's monetary policy will not be affected..
The ECB also explained a joint action with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England,
the US Federal Reserve, and the National Bank of Switzerland, whose purpose is to
reduce tensions that have appeared in European markets for short-term financing in
dollars.
The five organisations announced the reactivation of temporary facilities for currency
exchange in dollars, whose purpose is to facilitate liquidity in the US currency for
European banks.
Video: Summary of the press conference following the Extraordinary Meeting of
Finance Ministers

Legal notice

Sponsors

Accessibility

Web map

https://web.archive.org/web/20100915002201/http://www.eu2010.es/en/documentosynoticias/noticias/may10finalsalgado.html[2/17/2015 4:50:08 PM]