Germany's finance minister on Sunday rejected the idea of tapping unused money in the euro zone's rescue fund to boost investment, saying the fund's purpose was only to help countries in trouble and to boost confidence.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Saturday that experts advising incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker want the money that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) does not currently need for financial assistance to be set aside for investments.
"That has nothing to do with financing investment," Wolfgang Schaeuble said at the end of a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers in Cairns, Australia. The fund was created to help ailing countries and to stop investors from betting on their bankruptcy, he added.
"But above all the fund is there not to be used and to create confidence," Schaeuble added. The ESM was set up to safeguard and provide instant access to financial assistance programmes for euro zone members in financial difficulty. It has a maximum lending capacity of 500 billion euros.
Berlin already said on Saturday it was against plans to add such tasks to the ESM but Schaeuble's comments are likely to put an end to the debate as the fund's mandate would need to be changed for the plan to work. That would require member state support.
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