Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding called on Tuesday for the “troika” of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be dissolved, Reuters reported.
“The time of the troika is over,” Reding said in a text of the main messages she gave at a citizens΄ dialogue in Heidelberg in south-western Germany.
“Getting the IMF on board in recent years was an emergency solution. In future, we Europeans have to be able to resolve our problems on our own,” Reding, who is also vice-president of the European Commission, added.
The troika negotiates with countries in crisis, such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland, on austerity and reform measures they have to undertake in return for bailouts. It also supervises the implementation of such steps.
Reding said European institutions could manage this without the IMF.
“The Commission is the economic government of Europe. Together with the European Central Bank and the member states, we can make sure that, in return for solidarity, countries hit hardest by the crisis implement reform,” she said.
In an advance copy of an article due to be published in regional newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung on Wednesday, Reding said the EU Commission was better placed than the IMF to work towards a social market economy as the EU Treaty required it to do that.
Germany and Finland have insisted on the IMF΄s involvement in crisis management.
However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said last month that the IMF΄s involvement could not be a permanent solution, though he said it would only be able to withdraw in the long-term once current programmes had come to an end. (full article Capital.gr)
The moment Germany reconsiders the role of the IMF in European in-depted countries, EU commissioners spread the news lol
Is it because the IMF has become too “soft”?