EU € 85 billion to aid Ireland

December 7 local time, the 27 EU finance ministers after discussion, decided to formally approve the Irish 85 billion euro aid program.　　But Ireland must accept harsh conditions to overhaul its domestic finances and slash government budgets to meet EU standards. In response to EU aid, Ireland's finance ministers announced the toughest austerity measures in history in Congress 8th, including spending cuts and lower public-sector salaries, which include 6 billion euros in budget deficits.　　The budget drew protests from the people of the country. 7th, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) President Strauss-Kahn publicly criticized Europe's efforts to deal with the eurozone debt crisis is lack of overall.　　He said countries such as Germany have ignored his calls for bolder action in Europe. The criticism was based on the day before, when he failed to persuade the 16-nation eurozone finance ministers to agree to expand the scale of the financial safety net and to allow the European Central Bank to increase its bond purchases. But at the same time, the spread of the European bond market remains noteworthy.　　Euro-zone finance ministers said they would not take new steps to prevent contagion from Greece and Ireland to Portugal, perhaps even Spain or Italy. The donor countries say the euro safety net is adequate "the piecemeal approach of one country to another is unworkable."　　"Strauss-Kahn 7th in Athens with the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said that the eurozone must be the current European debt crisis spread the issue of a comprehensive solution.　　The idea was echoed by ECB officials and some in the market, who argue that it would be better than it is if Portugal and Ireland were put together under the EU and IMF financial umbrella instead of dealing with each other.　　However, the European Union's finance ministers said 7th that the EU would not immediately implement aid to Portugal and Spain and would not immediately raise the size of the 750 billion euro ($ 1 trillion trillion) crisis aid fund, but relied on the ECB's bond-buying programme to stabilize markets affected by the sovereign debt crisis. In the last one weeks, the ECB's purchases of bonds have reached a 22-week high, which has temporarily reduced speculative activity in the market, obscuring the differences between eurozone governments about what to do in the future to withstand the sovereign debt crisis.　　The European Central Bank said 6th it bought 1.965 billion euros (about $2.621 billion trillion) of bonds last week, the highest level since June.　　EU finance ministers say they believe the Spanish and grape governments will be able to rein in their fiscal deficits and say existing credit lines are sufficient to protect both countries in an emergency. Germany, the EU's main contributor to Greece and Ireland, has taken the lead in saying that the existing eurozone safety net is sufficient.　　Ministers said they had not even discussed proposals to issue joint bonds, in which Germany was more hostile to joint bonds. Ministers and the ECB buck this omissionled to weaker Portuguese and Spanish bonds.　　Market participants believe the ECB is watching, and last week the central bank pulled down the borrowing costs of Spain and Portugal by increasing bond purchases. "The ministers kicked the ball to the ECB," said Shige, a financial institution ING senior analyst. The ECB is now delaying time for politics. But the ECB will not be willing to continue as the only crisis manager, eager to return the ball back to politicians.　　"A European Central bank source said the ECB did not want to take the full risk of propping up eurozone creditors by buying large amounts of bonds, and hoped that Governments would adopt other initiatives such as increasing the bailout fund.　　Data show that the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) has the ability to issue up to € 440 billion of bonds to help eurozone members emerge from their plight, a fund that is part of the EU/International Monetary Fund's € 750 billion bailout fund.　　Schmitz, chairman of the German Banking Association, warned that the European sovereign debt crisis could continue into the 2011 and that private investors should be involved in future rescue programmes. The continued spread of debt in Europe has raised concerns about the pressure on financial institutions. EU finance ministers 7th agreed to launch a new round of tougher bank stress tests next February.　　Only 7 of the 91 tested in the first round of financial shocks to European banks this July passed. The European Union's Economic and Monetary Affairs executive, Ryan, said the stress tests would assess banks ' exposure to credit woes or the risk of depositors withdrawing deposits, rather than simply assessing how banks would respond to a severe economic slowdown or a possible sovereign default. "One of the previous lessons was that the next round of stress tests required a liquidity assessment." "(Source: Nanfang Daily)