Posted on 11/04/2011 7:08:06 PM PDT by Clive
CANNES, France -- Europe is going to have to dig itself out of its own mess, without the help of Canadian taxpayers, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday.
European leaders at the G20 summit here had hoped the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which gets nearly 3% of its funding from Canadian taxpayers, would pitch in to help Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and any other eurozone country in financial trouble.
It was an idea Harper and many other non-European leaders were dead set against.
"There is a lot of firepower here and the Europeans have every ability to deal with their own problems," Harper told reporters as the G20 summit concluded.
Officials from the IMF and the European Commission will be paying close attention to Italy to make sure the government of Silvio Berlusconi follows through on plans to balance that country's budget by 2013. But, as Harper said, the decision to put the IMF and EC on Italy's case has nothing to do with money and everything to do with boosting confidence in Italy's determination to deal with its debt load.
"The signal we're sending on the International Monetary Fund is simply to reassure markets that in the event of any kind of global crisis, G20 leaders are more than prepared to do whatever is necessary to overcome a crisis," Harper said.
That line was echoed by one G20 leader after another in their summit-ending press conferences.
"Ultimately, what the markets are looking for is that Europe is going to stand strongly behind the euro," U.S. President Barack Obama said.
The governments of Italy, Spain and Portugal are in terrible financial shape.
But the G20 has decided it will be up to France, Germany and other countries that use the euro -- the so-called eurozone countries -- to help them out.
"There is no thought of the Government of Canada contributing to a European bailout. We simply see absolutely no reason why Canada or any range of other countries would need to contribute to such a bailout," Harper said.
"These are wealthy countries that do have the means of dealing with their own problems."
Harper and other leaders spent much of the two-day summit consumed with the crisis in Europe and, more specifically, in Greece.
Early Friday morning, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told Bloomberg Television that he thought the odds of Greece leaving the eurozone were increasing.
"I think it's reasonably possible," Flaherty said. "They have the ultimatum now from their partners in the eurozone...so that will be a final decision by the Greek government of the day, whoever that happens to be."
But a few hours later, Harper appeared to contradict Flaherty, saying "cooler heads" have appeared to prevail in Greece. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou earlier this week said he would put a bailout plan to a referendum. Then, under intense pressure from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Papandreou reversed his position.
"The alternative has been made very clear to the Greek government: If you're going to send signals that you're not sure about whether you're part of the eurozone rescue plan, then the option will be, you're out of the eurozone," Harper said. "And I think that has caused a lot of second thoughts in Greece, [caused] cooler heads to prevail and I think it's pretty clear now they're going to move in the direction of adopting the plan."
Still, Papandreou's government faces a confidence vote scheduled for about 5 p.m. ET. Regardless of that vote's outcome, Papandreou is facing increasing calls from his own party to step down.
Either outcome -- Papandreou's resignation or the fall of his government -- could put the Greek bailout plan in jeopardy and, by extension, put Greece's future in the eurozone in jeopardy.
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Go Harper, when the majority of the Canadians (read socialists) don’t like you, it means you’re doing the right thing. Way to tell it like it is.
If the IMF gets involved in bailing out these Socialist countries... u know what that means...
The US Taxpayer will end up footing a large portion of the bill.
Just wait, the plea to use US Taxpayer money to bail out these socialist countries via the IMF will soon begin.
"Just wait, the plea to use US Taxpayer money to bail out these socialist countries via the IMF will soon begin."They already asked, during the G20 meeting. The non-euro countries declined.
Too Big To Fail will be the cry!!...
The answer...bail them out and make them bigger!!
Now doesn't that make perfect sense???
Those are nothing but words until our Gov. stops giving China and India $36 Million and $30 Million a year respectively.
http://blogs.canoe.ca/lilleyspad/general/subsidizing-the-competition/
“So why then is Canada giving foreign aid to nearly half the membership of the G20?”
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