EU-ambtenaren ontkennen voorbereidingen voor financiële steun aan Spanje (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU officials have denied they are hastily working behind the scenes to provide funding to Spain from the eurozone's recently agreed emergency support mechanism.
The statements on Monday (14 June) come despite the fact that several authoritative media outlets in Germany say EU countries are preparing to activate part of a €750 billion bail-out facility for Madrid.
"The commisison has no plans to prepare funding for Spain," commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said in Luxembourg after meeting Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, who also chairs the monthly meetings of eurozone finance ministers.
"There is no plan under discussion to provide financial assistance to any member state today," the commission's economic spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said at a regular press conference in Brussels. "It seems that some people do not understand that, in particular in one member state, namely Germany."
Spanish officials were also quick to deny they were preparing to tap the emergency funds. "Spain isn't negotiating with any European institution to get financing," said the country's deputy finance minister, Carlos Ocana.
Last week, eurozone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg agreed the outstanding details of an intergovernmental lending mechanism that will enable capitals to indirectly lend up to €440 billion to European administrations struggling to meet refinancing needs.
The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), as the mechanism is known, will be able to issue its own debt on capital markets, backed by national governments. This can then be lent to administrations struggling to meet refinancing obligations.
A new €60 billion EU fund, plus up to €250 billion in IMF money make up the remaining components of the €750 billion emergency eurozone backstop mechanism, hastily agreed by EU leaders and finance ministers last month as Greece's debt crisis threatened to spread to other euro area states.
An article in Monday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing German government sources, said EU member states are "preparing to help Spain resolve its worsening finance and debt crisis." It follows last week's Financial Times Deutschland report that also said EU member states were preparing to activate aid for Spain.
Officials contacted in Chancellor Angela Merkel's office refused to comment, but German finance ministry spokesman Michael Offer told a regular news briefing in Berlin that Germany sees no reason for EU aid for Spain. It's up to Spain to find solutions for any problems in Spanish banks, Mr Offer told reporters.
As well as difficulties with the country's regional lenders, Spain is currently suffering from a burst property bubble and an unemployment rate of roughly 20 percent and over 40 percent of young people.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has so far failed to sell a package of labour market reforms to unions but has indicated that he intends to push ahead regardless.
The southern state found itself the target of market attention after an April bail-out agreement for Greece turned investors' attention to other potentially vulnerable countries.
Pressure eased somewhat after the government announced a €15 billion package of unpopular spending cuts last month, legislation for which narrowly passed the country's parliament by a single vote.
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