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Brüderle: EU can't 'throw money' at debt crisis

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Brüderle: EU can't 'throw money' at debt crisis
Photo: DPA

German Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle warned on Tuesday that the EU cannot simply "throw money" at the spiralling debt crisis within the 16-nation eurozone.

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"You can't just throw money from helicopters ... You have to create confidence in institutions, in the state, in public authorities," Brüderle told reporters while visiting Rome, speaking in German with an Italian translation.

Brüderle said it was up to the Irish government to ask for assistance from the International Monetary Fund or from European funds.

He called on eurozone economies like Greece and Ireland to engage in deficit-reducing reforms "in order not to require assistance any more. The European community as a whole has an interest in finding a way to have guarantees of a solution when there are difficulties," he added.

He said the situation in Italy was less dramatic.

The European Commission on Tuesday said it was holding talks with the IMF and the European Central Bank to resolve the Irish banking crisis.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy warned early that the 27-nation bloc's very future could be at stake.

"If we don't survive with the eurozone we will not survive with the European Union," he said.

AFP/The Local/mry

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