Brussels, 30/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - Spain has made “painful sacrifices” but the debt interest rates still remain too high, said French President François Hollande, speaking on Thursday 30 August after a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. As a nudge in the direction of his Spanish counterpart, he spoke of the European Financial Stability Facility (ESFS)'s ability to intervene, with the support of the ECB, to face the situation. It is Spain's sovereign prerogative to decide on the “principle and the moment” for activating the fund, he added.
During the European Council on 18/19 October, the eurozone should take “lasting decisions” as “we have put off a number of decisions for too long and allowed doubt to become a permanent feature”, the French president said. He listed the events that will have taken place by that date: the verdict of the German constitutional court on the budgetary pact and the European Stability Mechanism (12 September), legislative elections in the Netherlands (idem), the quantification of capital needs of Spanish banks (end September), the financial report of the troika on implementing the second Greek rescue package (end September/early October), followed by decisions by the Greek parliament on new economic measures (early October).
Rajoy rejected statements whereby the Spanish government awaits elections in the Basque Country and in Galicia before making its request for bailout fund intervention. He deplored the fact that: “We are making all the necessary declarations on the irreversibility of the euro but there has to be an end to the fact that some countries are financed at 0% while others have a very high interest rate”. (MB/transl.jl)