KARLSRUHE (MNI) – The European Stability Mechanism must take effect
in order to give broader Eurozone reforms time to take hold, German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters after a day-long hearing at the German
Constitutional Court, Schaeuble said reforms being put in place in
Europe “need time until they have an effect.”
The ESM rescue fund would give Europe the time it needs “to
overcome the crisis, step by step,” he said.
Schaeuble earlier pleaded with the court — which is considering
temporary injunctions filed against the ESM — to issue its ruling
quickly, in his closing arguments telling judges it was “a question of
weeks.”
Schaeuble said EU leaders had made “great strides” in stabilizing
the Eurozone. He called the fiscal compact a “decisive step,” and said
the aid to be provided by the ESM was “justifiable” only in the context
of the broader controls on fiscal policy, and structural reforms by
countries accepting EU aid.
“The most important thing is that those countries that have
problems … each take control of their problems,” Schaeuble told the
court. Eurozone leaders should not offer the “wrong incentives” with
talk of common debt guarantees, he said.
–Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: ccermak@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$G$$$,M$X$$$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$]