BFW 08/06 09:41 *GERMANY BACKS ECB ACTION AS ANNOUNCED BY DRAGHI, STREITER SAYS
BN 08/06 09:40 *GERMANY BACKS ECB ACTION AS ANNOUNCED BY DRAGHI, STREITER SAYS
BN 08/06 09:40 *GERMANY BACKS ECB ACTION AS ANNOUNCED BY DRAGHI, STREITER SAYD
BN 08/06 09:39 *STREITER SAYS GERMANY HAS `NO DOUBT' ECB ACTING WITHIN MANDATE
BN 08/06 09:37 *STREITER: FISCAL PACT ONE OF THE STEPS TOWARD POLITICAL UNION
BN 08/06 09:36 *STREITER: MERKEL DOESN'T SHARE MONTI'S CONCERN OF EURO BREAKUP
BN 08/06 09:34 *GERMAN DEPUTY GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN STREITER SPEAKING IN BERLIN
BN 08/06 09:34 *STREITER SAYS `MORE CALM' IN EURO DEBATE `WOULD BE GOOD'
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By Rainer Buergin
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
government backed European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s
proposals on bond buying to help bring down borrowing costs in
Spain and Italy.
The government is “not worried” by Draghi’s announcement
of Aug. 2, deputy Merkel spokesman Georg Streiter told reporters
at a regular press briefing in Berlin today, when asked whether
the government is concerned that ECB independence might be
compromised.
Draghi “in his statement last week clearly addressed the
primacy of politics in the euro crisis and the government has no
doubt that everything the European Central Bank does happens
within the framework of its mandate,” Streiter said. Asked
whether that applies to ECB bond buying, he said: “You can draw
the conclusion that what’s happening there now has the backing
of the government.”
Merkel support for Draghi leaves Bundesbank President Jens
Weidmann increasingly isolated over his opposition to Draghi’s
proposal to consider purchasing government bonds in tandem with
Europe’s rescue fund in return for strict conditions imposed on
those countries in need of help. It also rebuffs her coalition
partners who have criticized Draghi.
“Taxpayers have a right to know which risks the ECB has
already heaped up in abusing its mandate,” Hans Michelbach, a
lawmaker with the Christian Social Union, Bavarian sister party
to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said in an e-mailed
statement today, calling Draghi’s plan “anti-democratic.”
“It would be good if the debate was guided by a bit more
calm,” Streiter said.