US VIEW:US TREASURY secretary Timothy Geithner pressed euro zone finance ministers to intensify the fight against the debt crisis yesterday but some European figures questioned the merits of his intervention.
At a private meeting in Poland, Mr Geithner urged them to maintain unity of purpose with the European Central Bank and said it was within Europe’s power to “choose” to settle the emergency.
As the ministers embark on talks about the possibility of giving the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bailout fund powers to provide cross-guarantees to the ECB, Mr Geithner suggested the fund had the ability to “leverage” up its assets.
But Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who is president of the euro zone ministers, made it clear Europe would make such decisions on its own. “We are not discussing the expansion or increase of the EFSF with a non-member of the euro area,” he told reporters.
The ministers also endorsed a compromise deal with the European Parliament on a long-delayed package of laws to toughen the surveillance of member states’ economies.
Mr Geithner’s attendance reflects mounting global concern about Europe’s failure to assert control over the expanding crisis.
“One of the starkest ways to emphasise the importance of Europe getting on top of this is that you don’t want the fate of Europe to rest in the hands of those who provide financing to the IMF, or who provide financing outside of the IMF,” he told reporters after the meeting.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the treasury secretary was very “succinct” but his Austrian counterpart Maria Fekter took issue with Mr Geithner.
“I found it peculiar that even though the Americans have significantly worse fundamental data than the euro zone that they tell us what we should do and when we make a suggestion . . . that they say no straight away,” she said.
This was a reference to new transaction taxes in the financial sector, which Washington resists.
ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet called for more action to tackle the crisis.
“Our permanent message is of course to be ahead of the curve,” he said. “All that I heard goes in this direction. But the problems are not words, the problems are deeds.”
