Parlement akkoord met verhoging financiële steun aan lidstaten EU (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Europees Parlement (EP) i, gepubliceerd op vrijdag 24 april 2009, 13:09.

EU financial assistance capacity should be increased to face current global crisis, said the European Parliament on Friday, 24 April.Members agreed that it is necessary to increase significantly the ceiling for the amount of loans to be granted to Member States which are not in the Euro zone. They also stressed that such an increase would also enhance Community's flexibility in providing financial help.

In a separate report, drafted by Pervenche Beres i (PES, FR) MEPs gave their support to the Commission proposal to double the overall financial assistance ceiling from €25 to €50 billion. The report was adopted with 369 votes in favour, 9 against and 15 abstentions.

No budgetary implications

Members stress there would be no budgetary impact if the loan ceiling is raised since the Commission would acquire the loans on the financial markets and the beneficiary Member States would be required to reimburse them.

Moreover, they think any financial help should foster promotion of quality of public spending.

Euro as safeguard

Members believe that the current situation show the relevance of the Euro in regard to protecting the Member States from the effects of the current turmoil. They also invite Member States outside the euro area to join it as soon as they fulfil the Maastricht criteria.

The Community has just granted a loan to Hungary of €6 500 000 000 and to Latvia of €3 100 000 000 and plans to provide medium-term financial assistance to Romania of up to € 5 000 000 000.