Eurozone chairman backs Hollande investment idea
Baku, May 1 (AZERTAC). Eurozone finance chairman Jean-Claude Juncker has backed the idea of boosting the European Investment Bank (EIB).
It is one of several measures demanded by the leading French presidential candidate Francois Hollande to boost growth in the eurozone.
Mr Hollande has said he wants the measures added to newly agreed limits on European governments` borrowing.
However, Mr Juncker poured cold water on the idea that the "fiscal compact" could be amended.
Despite his opposition to renegotiating the fiscal rules, Mr Juncker appeared to offer an olive branch in a speech in Hamburg on Monday, by backing Mr Hollande`s idea that the EIB could play a bigger role.
Mr Juncker said that the bank`s capital - its buffer against loan losses - could be increased by 10bn euros ($13bn; £8.1bn), which would increase its lending capacity by several times that figure.
The EIB is jointly-owned by the 27 EU nations - including the UK - and finances infrastructure, small and medium businesses, and green projects among other things.
Mr Hollande is ahead of the incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in opinion polls, having already narrowly beaten him in the first round of voting a week ago.
Mr Hollande has garnered support from other European leaders for the idea that the harsh austerity signed up to by European governments must be balanced by measures to boost growth.
Mr Juncker appears to have joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel in opposing the reopening negotiations on the fiscal pact - which has already been ratified in its current form by some countries.
Mr Juncker, who chairs the eurogroup of finance ministers, told the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag that he would "speak to Hollande" if the Socialist won the second round of presidential elections due this Sunday.
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