"We will continue to work in order to support the vulnerable countries as the Member States have clearly stated the IMF is part of these operations", said Mr Rehn. "Having said that, we have to reflect on the working method of the troika." Mr Rehn said he was in "constant touch with Christine Lagarde", the IMF managing director, but declined to say whether they'd spoken about the report.
EU officials said the IMF had not sent the European Commission an advance copy of the report, even after its contents were reported by The Wall Street Journal ahead of the public release. One of the key claims in the report is that the IMF had argued for an early restructuring of Greek debt but the idea was nipped in the bud in 2010 because of political resistance from the euro area.
Mr Rehn defended the decision by saying that a debt restructuring at the outset of the crisis could have driven the euro into an accidental break-up and risked a crisis worse than the one suffered after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Another accusation levelled against the commission in the IMF report was that it was unsuccessful at enforcing fiscal discipline and had no crisis-management experience. The report also said the EU executive branch had been more concerned with "sticking to EU norms" than promoting growth-enhancing structural reforms.
Full article
© Wall Street Journal
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article