EU Says Support Conditions for Ireland ‘Rigorous’

European Commissioner Olli Rehn, Economic and Monetary Affairs, on Monday told the European Parliament that the EU’s financial support for Ireland will be made available under ‘rigorous’ conditions. Rehn made his comment during a debate at the European Parliament on the 2009 annual report for the European Central Bank. “EU financial support can be provided under a programme with rigorous policy conditionality which has been negotiated recently 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 decisive manner and the programme will also include a fund for potential future capital needs of the banking sector. To redress stress in the banking sector a comprehensive range of measures including deliberating and restructuring will need to be taken to contribute to insuring that the Irish baking system performs its role properly in the functioning of the overall economy. The technical talks under an EU IMF programme are now well under the way, and the negotiations can be concluded by the end of November. Apart from EU and IMF financing, I can inform you that the UK and Sweden have indicated that they sand ready to contribute to the programme trough bilateral loan which is welcome”. Distributed by Tubemogul.