Brussels, 25/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 January, the Portuguese prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, said that no renegotiation was needed of Portugal's aid package from the EU and IMF. He urged the EU to set up mechanisms to avoid the Greek situation spreading any further.
Portuguese media report concerns by many analysts about whether Portugal will be able to roll over its debt unaided on the money markets next year, as planned in the May 2011 bailout plan. The prime minister, however, says that Portugal will not be requesting a renegotiation of the aid programme. Portugal received a loan of €78 billion in return for an austerity programme and reforms intended to restore a return to growth next year. Passos Coelho said the country would not be asking for more time or money, adding that the international lenders had promised not to abandon countries in receipt of aid that were meeting their pledges. He said that the EU and IMF would not withdraw aid from countries which, for reasons not of their own making, are unable to raise funds from the markets as expected. He said that the Portuguese programme would certainly not fail due to domestic reasons, and that's all that he himself was interested in.
Speaking in Lisbon after talks with the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, Passos Coelho said it was vital that Europe set up mechanisms to prevent a spread of the Greek situation. He said the decisions made by the recent European Council had to be put into action as soon as possible in order to restore confidence among ordinary people and the markets in Europe, saying that he and his Spanish counterpart had a common vision of the problems facing the European Union. (LC/transl.fl)