George Osborne joined the meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Hungary Saturday April 9,2011 BRITISH taxpayers will be saddled with a multi-billion-pound bill after EU finance ministers agreed last night that the UK will take part in a bail-out for cash-strapped Portugal. Part of an estimated £70billion rescue package will be drawn from a temporary bail-out fund used for Ireland, requiring loan guarantees from all member states – even those not in the euro zone. The arrangement was signed up to by Alistair Darling in May 2010 when he was Chancellor and was fiercely opposed by his then Tory shadow, George Osborne. Now the Chancellor, Mr Osborne insisted he had achieved three objectives in agreeing preliminary arrangements for another bail-out for a virtually bankrupt country in the single currency. He said: “First, there has to be an International Monetary Fund package for Portugal before any European money can be committed. “Second, I made it clear that, unlike the Irish case, British taxpayers’ money will not be lent directly to Portugal. “And third, we confirmed that while the previous Government committed us to the temporary European Union mechanism, this Government has secured agreement that the UK will not be part of the permanent mechanism that will take its place from 2013.” The Chancellor also repeated his claim that the Portuguese crisis demonstrated the value of tough austerity measures. “Sitting around the table discussing the bail-out of yet another country that didn’t have a credible plan to deal with its high budget deficit was another reminder that Britain’s deficit deniers are playing with fire,” he said. Mr Osborne joined the meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Hungary as Portugal lodged its formal request for a bail-out, triggering efforts to get a joint EU-IMF financial package in place in the next few weeks without alarming financial markets. Later he said there was only “a very theoretical risk” of the UK having to pay money to Portugal if it defaulted on its EU loan repayments. The terms of a deal signed by Mr Darling in the last days of the Labour government means Britain is committed to contributing a share of any bail-out provided before 2013 under the European Financial Stability Mechanism. Officials at the Treasury have confirmed Britain could be required to underwrite a loan of up to £4.4billion – 13.6 per cent of the 37.5billion euros remaining in the fund – as well as 4.5 per cent of any IMF loan to Portugal. Euro sceptics argued any bail-out should be funded from the separate European Financial Stability Facility, which imposes no liability on the UK. Meanwhile, two polls add support to the Daily Express crusade for Britain to pull out of the EU. One by YouGov shows almost two-thirds of voters are opposed to the UK contributing to a bail-out and a majority want a referendum on EU membership if the country is forced into it. And the other shows 45 per cent of voters in the Czech Republic saying they would not now join the EUUK NEWS
BRITONS CLOBBERED AS EU AGREES £70BN RESCUE FOR PORTUGAL
By Martyn Brown
Also On Express.co.uk
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/239618Britons-clobbered-as-EU-agrees-70bn-rescue-for-Portugal#ixzz1J3Z3aL5A
Saturday, 9 April 2011
George Osborne joined the meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Hungary
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