European Monetary Fund would require political leverage

Several European states have proposed the creation of a European counterpart to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent problems such as those in Greece from arising. But such an EMF would be superfluous without sufficient political clout, writes the business daily De Tijd: "The central question remains: what to do if you find a European country living beyond its means? Experience tells us that there is only one answer: If a government doesn't want to tell its voters the bad news, the financial markets will. Only then will the necessary and unavoidable measures be implemented. And that is exactly the role of the IMF. It gives money in exchange for unpopular reforms. The pressure of the financial markets and the IMF are currently the best lever we have. If a European Monetary Fund isn't coupled with closer political cooperation in the Eurozone, it will be nothing more than a poor copy of the original, and consequently of no use whatsoever."

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Europe
All available articles from » Bart Haeck

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, March 9, 2010