The premiers of the Visegrad Four countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) agreed in Brussels on Thursday, December 16, on the need to send a clear signal to the markets when it comes to a definite agreement on creating a permanent crisis mechanism to replace the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in 2013.
Only such a signal can contribute towards calming the situation on international markets, said Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová after the V4 meeting, which was also attended by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. Radičová conceded that such an agreement might not work, however. "We still haven't sent such a signal. My personal opinion [is] that this won't be enough," she said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The Slovak premier said she was satisfied with the preliminary agreements reached at the EU summit in Brussels. According to her, the creation of a permanent crisis mechanism with a role for the private sector in resolving future problems will remove the moral hazard. "It should contain very strict mechanisms for proceeding if countries run up against problems. First, there is responsibility to the International Monetary Fund, then to the mechanism and then to the creditors, who come in last place," she said.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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