It looks as if the taxpayer-funded European Investement Bank is preparing for the euro collapse and/or for the euro-exit of countries applying the economic stability program. That is, the bailout that has so far “helped” Greece, Portugal and Ireland. The EIB has started to include a new legal clause in its contracts with Greek companies that allows them to repay loans in a currency other than the euro. And this currency is ‘drachma’ reports daily Kathimerini. The daily reports that the EIB is “hedging itself against a Greek exit from the eurozone by inserting drachma clauses in the loan deals it signs with Greek enterprises.”
“The first such deal was two weeks ago when the management of Public Power Corporation (PPC), the country’s electricity giant began negotiating with the EIB about a 70-million-euro loan to fund its new natural-gas-powered plant at Megalopoli in the Peloponnese.
The EIB proposed for the first time two new terms, one of them being the possible renegotiation of the agreement should Greece leave the eurozone or should the common currency area break up. The second was placing the agreement under British law, in case of any irregularities in the payback process.
PPC referred the issue to the Finance Ministry, which undertook negotiations with the EIB as it realized that those terms did not just concern PPC but also the general credit policy of the bank toward Greece.
EIB sources suggest that the currency-change clause will be included in all contracts with countries applying economic stability programs (Greece, Portugal and Ireland) and gradually expand to all eurozone countries.
Sources suggest that the bank has made it clear to the political leadership of the Finance Ministry that the whole of the new contracts for loans to Greek companies will have the so-called “drachma clauses” and will be under British law.” (Further reading)
According to Associated Press, a spokeswoman for the bank denies that the move indicates that it is preparing for an eventual Greek exit from the euro.
Helen Kavvadia said the clause, used for the first time in a
You are actually missing the important bit in all this, being that all such agreements will be “under British Law”. British Law of course includes the Anti-Terrorist Law which Great Britain used against Iceland to freeze all Icelandic assets when Iceland opted to let the banks go instead of paying up for their mistakes…
hm… actuallly we didn’t miss that point, we took it into account but ‘drachma’ seemed more important. sorry.