Brussels, 17/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On a German public radio station on Monday 17 January 2011, Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said it was pointless talking about the idea of expanding the capacity of the EFSF, a fund created last year to help the eurozone. He said the European Commission's call on eurozone countries to expand and/or increase the powers of the EFSF only complicated the situation (see EUROPE 10292). He did not oppose the idea of looking into the matter in the medium-term to enable to EFSF to be able to grant loans of up to a total of €440 billion without losing its AAA rating. Eurogroup ministers will be discussing on Monday evening the EU's response to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis (see EUROPE 10294). Poland has officially requested to be involved in the Council of Ministers' preparatory work on the setting up of the European Stability Mechanism that will replace the temporary funds (like the EFSF) in the summer of 2013. Five other non-eurozone countries have already made the same request. (M.B./trans fl)