Ako pre The Slovak Spectator uviedol dňa 26.7. 2010
Juraj Karpiš z INESS, ESFS (euroval) by sa nemal stať časovo neobmedzeným
programom na podporu fiškálnej nezodpovednosti.
AFTER much prodding from the European Union and a lengthy
domestic game of blame, the government of Prime Minister Iveta Radičová has
given the go ahead to Slovakia’s participation in the European financial safety
net, but both Radičová and Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš were making sure that
their reservations to the programme were nevertheless clearly heard in
Brussels.
The Slovak government’s July 15 ‘yes’ must now be approved
by the country’s 150-member parliament in which the ruling coalition holds a
narrow majority. But by the cabinet’s decision, the Radičová government has
cleared the way for the EU to launch the European Financial Stabilisation
Facility (EFSF).
“We want to serve as an example of making principled decisions
and keeping to the rules of the game,” Radičová said, adding that this is why
the government decided to support a political declaration made by the previous
government in May.
At the same time the government adopted a statement
specifying terms under which Slovakia will participate in the mammoth
€750-billion programme to ensure financial stability in the eurozone. The
statement said Slovakia will join in concrete support for another country only
if the European Union beefs up the Stability and Growth Pact, a major bond by
eurozone countries to protect the stability of the European Monetary Union,
along with better rules for its application and enforceability. Slovakia also
called for a clear mechanism for managing the insolvency of a country which had
undertaken irresponsible budgetary policies, the SITA newswire wrote.
Slovakia will not share any of the financial costs of the
first multi-billion rescue deal for Greece, as the government recommended that
parliament reject any additional codicils to the original agreement signed by
the previous government that would be required if Slovakia was to contribute
any cash to the Greek loan deal.
Mikloš explained that the government’s “yes” to the
framework agreement does not mean that Slovakia will necessarily provide cash
to a troubled country since any eventual disbursement of funds is conditioned
upon further agreement by all the participating countries.
Former Prime Minister Robert Fico, of the largest opposition
party Smer, quickly commented that Radičová and her coalition government “have
completed the deception of its voters” saying that before the parliamentary
election the then-opposition parties stated they would not support the EFSF.
“Today they have done so, while no one and nothing obliged
them [the government] to do so,” Fico said on July 15, as quoted by SITA.
Two of the ruling coalition parties, the Slovak Democratic
and Christian Union (SDKÚ) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) expressed negative
opinions about the loan for Greece and Slovakia’s involvement in the
stabilisation facility from their very inception. On the eve of the cabinet’s
decision, the four parties of the ruling coalition, SDKÚ, SaS, the Christian
Democratic Movement (KDH) and Most-Híd, met and decided to approve
participation in the programme.
SaS head Richard Sulík said that even though his party had a
contrary opinion on the issue he understood the political circumstances and
said his party would vote to approve adding Slovakia’s signature to the
agreement.
Meanwhile, Mikloš said in an interview with the Austrian Der
Standard daily that Slovakia will not agree with stretching the EFSF beyond
more than three years.
According to Mikloš, three years is sufficient time for
those governments with deficit troubles to undergo remedial actions.
Juraj Karpiš with the
INESS economic think tank concurs with Mikloš.
“The EFSF should not
become an unlimited tool to support fiscal irresponsibility,” Karpiš told The
Slovak Spectator.
Over the past couple of weeks a tug of war has raged between
the incoming and the outgoing governments: former PM Fico quickly threw the
ball to Radičová after he was not able to form a government, suggesting that
approval of the European programme was already Radičová’s responsibility even
though she was not appointed prime minister until July 8. She insisted that
before then Slovakia’s formal yes or no, which was supposed to come before July
1, was fully within the power of Fico’s government, which had earlier inked the
deal.
The EFSF plan was developed in response to EU concerns about
the financial stability of the eurozone, which has been shaken by Greece’s debt
woes and concerns about the financial condition of several other eurozone
countries. In early May eurozone finance ministers, including Slovakia’s
finance minister at the time, Ján Počiatek, agreed to a multi-billion rescue
loan to Greece, with Slovakia expected to contribute €800 million.
Slovakia’s share of the costs in establishing the EFSF will
be €4.4 billion. Mikloš stated that Počiatek and the previous government failed
to negotiate a fair deal for Slovakia.
“If Slovakia is supposed to contribute 2.3 times more in
terms of GDP-ratio than the wealthiest EU country, Luxembourg, then it’s
evident that the conditions have been negotiated poorly,” Mikloš said, as
quoted by the TASR newswire.
However, Mikloš said the new government could no longer seek
to negotiate these contributions as the breakdown had already been approved by
the parliaments of other EU member states.
Radičová and Mikloš visited Brussels on July 13 to speak
with EU officials, including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy,
about the safety net programme and Slovakia’s participation in it. They had
hoped to secure better conditions but were told directly that they were no
longer negotiable.
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said after
his meeting with Radičová that solidarity within the EU works in both
directions.
Martin Bútora of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO)
think tank said that Slovakia found itself in a strange situation during the
public discourse over the EFSF.
“The government of Robert Fico agreed that we would support
this concept, but without any active participation by Finance Minister Počiatek
or by advisers to the prime minister or Počiatek in the discussions as this
European policy was being formed,” Bútora told a press conference. “We accepted
it even though it was formed without active Slovak participation.”
Bútora said that for this reason it was appropriate that the
new prime minister and finance minister went to Brussels and reviewed the
details of the agreement as well as its political context.
The
Slovak Spectator, 26 Jul 2010 Beata
Balogová
