Britain will not "provide support" to new euro safeguard fund

[Darsh]

Britain's Finance minister Alistair Darling said his country would not "provide support" to a European bailout fund to help potential debt-troubled eurozone countries, hours before his 27 EU counterparts meet in Brussels to vote on the measure.
By News Wires (text) AFP - Britain said on Sunday that it will refuse to underwrite a European Union bailout fund worth some 60 billion euros that finance ministers want to agree at emergency talks in Brussels.

"We wouldn't participate in a European bailout fund," a British diplomat told AFP of moves for all 27 EU member states to guarantee borrowings destined to bailout troubled economies in the crisis-hit 16-nation eurozone.

British Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling landed in Brussels shortly before the European Commission was due to finalise plans to set up a mini-European version of the International Monetary Fund to aid debt-saddled euro nations.

Talks between finance ministers of the full EU, of which Britain and eastern industrial powerhouse Poland are the main non-euro states, are due to start at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT), after eurozone leaders ordered a financial firewall to be agreed by Sunday night.

EU diplomats have told AFP that a kind of "bank" would be set up with unused funds from the bloc's budget, which would then serve as "base capital" on which to borrow 60 billion euros (more than 75 billion dollars) on the bond market.

Guarantees sought from EU member states would see the interest rates kept low, sources stressed.

The plans are intended to extend emergency provisions, that have previously allowed the EU to help non-euro members like Hungary, Latvia or Romania, to the eurozone, given treaty obstacles stemming from monetary union.

Britain, whose own debts are on a similar scale to those of Greece, and which is predicted by the commission to have the highest public deficit in the EU this year, fears a long-term impact on its taxpayers.

Darling will take Britain's decision during a vote that French diplomats have told AFP could be passed using qualified majority voting, with Treasury officials "informing" potential replacements in the London government following last week's general election.

Power-sharing negotiations resumed on Sunday between Conservative and Liberal Democrat rivals unfold back in London, with Conservative leader David Cameron expected to lead an incoming minority or coalition government.

Darling can expect pressure in return from eurozone peers over Britain's refusal in March to back new laws curbing hedge and other high-risk investment funds, mostly based in the City and which critics say cost Europe dearly during market "attacks" on Greece, Spain and Portugal.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100509-...-eurozone-debt

It would be ironic if Britain will need of this emergency fund that won't exist because they don't want.

[King Edward III]

We're not in the Euro, Darsh.

Deal with your own problems, we have enough as it is.

[Darsh]

We're not in the Euro, Darsh.

Deal with your own problems, we have enough as it is.

You are one of the most important of the EU members and the problem of the eurozone won't stop at the channel.

Take your responsability!

[King Edward III]

You are one of the most important of the EU members and the problem of the eurozone won't stop at the channel.

Take your responsability!

We have no responsibility to take. Its up to France and Germany to bail out other Eurozone members.

[PhilipO'Hayda]

You are one of the most important of the EU members and the problem of the eurozone won't stop at the channel.

Take your responsability!

and what responsability is that? Britain doesit need the EU but the EU needs Britain.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

the EU needs Britain.

this seems to be a huge misconception amoung british people

I mean they claim they pay for essentially everything the EU does yet they are way behind even Italy, and per capita their contributions aren small than even the netherlands, sweden, denmark and austria

yet the amount of whinging they do is unbelievable

if you don't need the EU then leave.

What, so we not should expect all other countries that don't use the pound to bail us out if our economy collapses? I wouldn't expect them to.

why wouldn't you expect them to? You are part of the EU, I would almost say you are entitled to it.

[Erebus Pasha]

this seems to be a huge misconception amoung british people

I mean they claim they pay for essentially everything the EU does yet they are way behind even Italy, and per capita their contributions aren small than even the netherlands, sweden, denmark and austria

yet the amount of whinging they do is unbelievable

if you don't need the EU then GTFO.

Frankly we don't care much about the EU. It only makes headline news when Nigel Farage decides to slaughter Herman van Rumpy Pumpy.

[King Edward III]

if you don't need the EU then GTFO.

We would if our politicians would give us the choice. Unfortunately they wont.

[Каие]

if you don't need the EU then GTFO.

Ooo! Yes please. Can we have a vote on it? Ah yeah, the EU is not democratic.

[Adar]

You are one of the most important of the EU members and the problem of the eurozone won't stop at the channel.

Take your responsability!

I think this show the major problem with Europhiles. You expect people who wish to take care of our own business to come and bail you out when your retarded, ugly and corrupted love-child is strangling itself to death.

The only thing I'm willing to give you is more rope...

[bigfootedfred]

You are one of the most important of the EU members and the problem of the eurozone won't stop at the channel.

Take your responsability!

Do i sense panic?

Down with the EU.

[Musthavename]

We already contribute to the IMF. We don't need to pay for the Euro that we don't even have.

[Exarch]

http://www.france24.com/en/20100509-...-eurozone-debt

It would be ironic if Britain will need of this emergency fund that won't exist because they don't want.

cant blame 'em
besides UK is going to need that $$ for their own problems; their economy is more important to the global economy than the greek economy

[Jom]

http://www.france24.com/en/20100509-...-eurozone-debt

It would be ironic if Britain will need of this emergency fund that won't exist because they don't want.

Considering the primary reason this fund was formed was to provide financial assistance to countries within the Eurozone whose economic problems could drag the value of the entire currency down, I don't see a big problem with the UK refusing to participate in this fund.

[mongrel]

[Thorn777]

I'd rather have the UK coming clean a whole series of other issues involving financial markets and tax-havens.

[Azog 150]

Its Britain's responsibility to bail out the Eurozone which Britain isn't even in? Its the Eurozone's mess, not ours.

[Tiberios]

Its Britain's responsibility to bail out the Eurozone which Britain isn't even in? Its the Eurozone's mess, not ours.

This. Britain shouldn't pay for this.

[Lance-Corporal Jones]

http://www.france24.com/en/20100509-...-eurozone-debt

It would be ironic if Britain will need of this emergency fund that won't exist because they don't want.

It's all about saving the euro, Darsh. Not Greece. Sarkozy and Merkel don't give a about Greece.

This whole qualified majority voting shenanigan, in which the 16 eurozone countries intend to plunder the taxpayers' money from the 11 other non-eurozone countries, by describing the Greek crisis as a "natural disaster" (LOL!!!) is simply ridiculous.

Let the eurozone sort out its own problems.

[PhilipO'Hayda]

It's all about saving the euro, Darsh. Not Greece. Sarkozy and Merkel don't give a about Greece.

This whole qualified majority voting shenanigan, in which the 16 eurozone countries intend to plunder the taxpayers' money from the 11 other non-eurozone countries, by describing the Greek crisis as a "natural disaster" (LOL!!!) is simply ridiculous.

Let the eurozone sort out its own problems.

an action like this is also going bankrupt Ireland.