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Statement from EU finance ministers
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Below the fold. The interesting phrase … “deleveraging and restructuring of the banking sector”. The surgeon’s knife is out. Sweden and UK — the big northern non-Eurozone economies, also to lend. [UPDATE] The corresponding Irish government statement, which uses many of the same sentences, omits the part of the Euro statement where they say that the program will “build on” fiscal adjustment and structural reforms in the 4 year plan. Weren’t the Brians telling us that the 4 year plan was sufficient as a fiscal strategy?
Statement by the Eurogroup and ECOFIN Ministers
Ministers welcome the request of the Irish Government for financial assistance from the European Union and euro-area Member States. Ministers concur with the Commission and the ECB that providing assistance to Ireland is warranted to safeguard financial stability in the EU and in the euro area.
In the context of a joint programme EU/IMF, the financial assistance package to the Irish state should be financed from the European financial stabilisation mechanism (EFSM) and the European financial stability facility (EFSF), possibly supplemented by bilateral loans to be negotiated by EU Member States. The United Kingdom and Sweden have already indicated today that they stand ready to consider a bilateral loan.
EU and euro-area financial support will be provided under a strong policy programme which will be negotiated with the Irish authorities by the Commission and the IMF, in liaison with the ECB.
The programme will address the fiscal challenges of the Irish economy in a decisive manner. It will build on the fiscal adjustment and structural reforms that will be put forward by the Irish authorities in their Four Year Budgetary Strategy next week. This strategy will provide the details of the Government’s commitment to achieve fiscal consolidation of EUR 6 bn in 2011 as part of a strategy leading to a 3% of GDP deficit by 2014, implying an overall consolidation of 15 bn in the 4 year strategy, which contains an annual review.
Given the strong fundamentals of the Irish economy, decisive implementation of the programme should allow a return to a robust and sustainable growth, safeguarding the economic and social cohesion.
The programme will also include a fund for potential future capital needs of the banking sector. By building on the measures already taken by Ireland to address stress in its banking sector, a comprehensive range of measures – including deleveraging and restructuring of the banking sector – will contribute to ensuring that the banking system performs its role in the functioning of the economy.
After approval by the Irish Government, the programme will be endorsed by the ECOFIN Council and the Eurogroup, in line with national procedures, on the basis of a Commission and ECB assessment.
So the EU/IMF have arrived to pick the bones of both the political estalishment and the economy. I see that the IMF have already mede it clear that they recommend the lowering dole payments the longer someone is unemployed, and a review of the minimum wage. They also urge tax changes and better childcare to encourage women into the labour force.
Why are they still pushing failed policies? Isn’t it a glut of cheap exploitable labour and forcing both parents out of the home to make a living that has got us where we are today.
The answer is simple. The rich cannot be rich unless all around them are poor. So the easiest way to get rich is to create poverty around you. This is what the “American Dream” has always been based on as we see wherever they have spread their influence in the world. Now that the rest of the world have copped on and are standing up for themselves it seems they see the peripheral countries of Europe as rich pickings.
I have also seen somewhere the mention of privatisation of public services.
I think the government should resign now even before the budget is passed.
Let the people vote.
Reduction of basic wage? They unemployed will love that they are finding it very hard to make ends meet at present. The question is though is how long will it take for the basic prices to drop (incl coal).