Sunday, December 18, 2011

EU demands £25bn lifeline from the UK

David Cameron will come under pressure today to resist demands to contribute more than £25 billion to a new eurozone bail-out.

European finance ministers will aim to agree a new €200 billion (£167.7 billion) loan to the International Monetary Fund as part of a deal to save the single currency.

Three quarters of the money is expected to come from eurozone members, but Britain will also be asked to provide funds.

Figures suggest European Union officials expect British taxpayers to be the second largest contributor. The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised not to provide any extra funding for the IMF for the specific purpose of saving the euro and Britain is already liable for £12 billion of loans and guarantees to Ireland, Greece and Portugal.

Earlier this month, EU countries set today as the deadline to raise up to €200  billion in new loans for the IMF to deal with the eurozone crisis.

Finance ministers will hold a conference call in an attempt to reach agreement on the war chest.
Read the rest here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I won't worry about this too much just yet. It might be correct, but I suspect that there are many more nuances than have been reported. The Telegraph is known for not letting facts get in the way of a good story. Particularly a good right-wing story. It's very similar to the - left-wing - Guardian in that respect (although the Guardian usually reports correctly - it just misses out or downplays bits it doesn't like). I've always likened them to the Tower of Barad-dur and the Tower of Orthanc in The Lord of the Rings: two evils glaring balefully at one another, each trying to subjugate the other, as well as the poor unfortunates who happen to live in between.

Or, if you prefer Shakespeare, a plague o' both their houses!