European Union Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn said Ireland and Portugal could draw on an ECB bond-buying programme to help them become the first bailout countries to be weaned off official aid and move back to market financing.
"The option of combining a precautionary programme with the ECB's outright monetary transactions is something that should not be ruled out, and is one option that should be considered as a way of smoothing the way for a successful return to market financing", Mr Rehn told reporters after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels today.
In a further concession, Mr Rehn said he favours giving Ireland and Portugal more time to pay back bailout loans, extending to them the same treatment granted to Greece last year. Any decision by the ECB to deploy its as-yet unused unlimited bond-purchase facility would rest with the independent central bank, he added.
Irish Minister for Finance Michael Noonan stressed there was no final decision but said there was “no objection of any sort” to this move at talks in Brussels. There was “a decision in principle to proceed in this manner and it will enhance the sustainability of the Irish debt and it is additional to all the other measures we have in play”, he said. He said the deal could save Ireland "a certain amount of billions".
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