The move comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants all countries in the EU to fund the bailout, not just countries party to the Eurozone. According to The Guardian (UK), Merkel has already discussed such a tactic with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
However, Thursday’s edition of the daily writes that PM Cameron is against such a measure, although both Poland and the UK may risk being outvoted in the EU Council over the matter.
Poland has already given money for efforts to rescue the economies of Ireland and Portugal, although experts have warned that there is a high amount of risk when it comes to the Greek bailout.
The Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency recently stated that there is a 75 percent probability that the Greek economy will go bankrupt within five years. In May last year, Greece was given an aid package amounting to 110 billion euro – it now has to pay that sum back to its creditors.
“Since the first bailout of Greece, a mechanism has been created which is partly guaranteed by the European Commission,” Francois Head, spokesman for the EU Council for economic and financial affairs told the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily.
“The European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) was first used for the bailouts of Ireland and Portugal. Now other EU countries believe that it should be used in Greece’s case,” Head informed.
While the total amount of the EFSM amounts to 60 billion euro, 48.5 billion has already been allocated to Ireland and Portugal, leaving some 11.5 billion euro for Greece. Poland would donate some 250 million euro to the remaining figure.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to push through hard-hitting austerity measures, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou appointed a new finance minister today.
In the wake of protests across the country, Evangelos Venizelos now takes the helm of the country’s crippled finances.
Poland ‘oasis of good news’?
Despite ongoing fiscal and social calamity in Greece, Janusz Lewandowski, the European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget, has announced that Poles should not be worried that the financial crisis will hit Poland as hard as in other countries in the EU.
Speaking to public broadcaster TVP this morning, Lewandowski commented on Poland’s relative financial stability in the EU by stating that “[Poland] is an oasis of good news,” adding that “when I compare how Poland is faring with [other EU countries], it makes me feel proud.”
Commenting on the EU’s bailout mechanisms for Ireland, Portugal, and now Greece, Lewandowski said that they should “be able to prevent fires, not just extinguish them.”
While the EU discusses how Greece’s bailout should be conducted, with talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy taking place in Berlin, Lewandowski said the bailout would only work “if the Greeks believe they can come out of the crisis.” (jb)