Lopatka: “Communitisation of debts is the wrong message”

Lopatka: “Communitisation of debts is the wrong message” / Picture: © Flickr / The Austrian Foreign Ministry

"I am unable to understand the proposal made by Federal Chancellor Faymann who suggested a communitisation of debts. At the present time when the member states are being called upon to bring their national budgets in order, this is an utterly wrong message for the reform-willing states. It is now essential that the reform and austerity schemes are rigorously implemented, either using own resources or by means of the ESM. A debt fund would thus be the wrong message at this stage", State Secretary Lopatka said in reference to the most recent statements of Federal Chancellor Faymann at the European Council in Brussels.

"Before pooling the debts and risks of all EU states, clear structures and a supervisory body with effective rights of control and intervention must be established. We have only made the first step in developing the European Union further in the banking and fiscal area. Many structural and legal issues are still unresolved, and we need a coherent overall concept with measures that are fine-tuned in terms of content and time schedule. Chancellor Faymann's thrusting ahead with a debt fund is overhasty and would entail an incalculable risk for those states with a healthy economy, such as Austria, and for the European Union itself", Lopatka added.