Berlin,Germany – The chairman of Eurogroup and Portugal’s finance minister, Mário Centeno, said on Wednesday that Portugal was a case study after meeting his German counterpart, insisting that “solidarity and stability” should go “hand in hand” in the euro zone.
Mr Centeno said that the euro zone had managed to get itself out of the crisis thanks to significant risk reduction and gave Portugal as an “example of success”.
Germany’s finance minister, Peter Altmaier, said that “even before beginning to talk about sharing risks”, they had to “ensure the risks are reduced” and that “it was never (certain) that the European deposit insurance scheme would be up and running by the middle of this year” since, he stressed, “first we need an agreement about reducing the risk”.
“Germany wants a stable euro zone in a strong European Union. That is why we have to hold on to our principles of solidarity and stability that have to go hand in hand, accountability and control have to be kept together. And that is why we have to complete the Banking Union and we also have to talk about cutting risks”, the German minister said.
Mário Centeno added that “more has to be done” and that “there are packages being discussed in the European Commission (EC), the Council and Eurogroup to help reduce countries’ risks”.
