EU discusses restructuring of Irish and Portuguese bailouts to deepen austerity
At their meeting last week, European Union (EU) finance ministers agreed in principle to examine ways to restructure the bailout programmes of Ireland and Portugal. - A statement declared that the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) would work out the “best possible option” to allow for the extension of the repayment of the emergency loans given to Dublin and Lisbon. A final decision could be made next month. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the statement insisted that the move was not a sign of the failure of the bailout programmes to prevent the economic crisis from deepening in both countries. “Both programmes are on track and performing well despite challenging macro-economic circumstances,” the statement claimed. In fact, the decision came in the same week as figures confirmed that the contraction of the euro zone economy as a whole had accelerated at the end of 2012. Growth projections for 2013 from the ECB suggest a contraction of 0.5 percent. If realised, this would mean that for the first time since the introduction of the currency in 1999, economic growth would have declined for two consecutive years.