Euro Area Eyes New Role for Bloc’s Bailout Fund
- Finance ministers gather in Luxembourg to discuss ESM
- Member states seek to strengthen the euro-area backstop
Bruno Le Maire, France's finance minister, walks along a corridor as he arrives for a Eurogroup meeting of European finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, June 15, 2017. Euro area finance ministers plan to disburse EU8.5b bailout tranche for Greece, two officials familiar with the matter say, asking not to be named, pending final decision.
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/BloombergEuro-area finance ministers gathering in Luxembourg on Monday discussed the future role of the bloc’s bailout fund as nations push to capitalize on the currency union’s momentum and seek to better shield the region from future financial shocks.
Even as a consensus has emerged among the 19 eurozone nations to strengthen the European Stability Mechanism, the bloc’s bailout fund, views differ on how much power the body should have and what its position should be within the European Union’s institutional hierarchy.