French back Dutch plan for rescue fund

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende is to talk to the French president Nicolas Sarkozy today about a plan for a collective European approach to the current financial crisis, reports Thursday’s Financieele Dagblad.

Balkenende wants Europe to set up a joint emergency fund so that financial assistance to banks can be coordinated. According to unnamed sources such a fund would provide a buffer of around €300bn, the paper says.
The Netherlands hopes that a joint approach will prevent each country acting purely in the national interest even when this has a detrimental affect elsewhere.
Balkenende sees the European Commission playing a coordinating role in such a rescue fund but stresses that national responsibilities will remain intact, reports the Financieele Dagblad.
According to the paper, the French president is ‘charmed’ by the Dutch proposal but the German chancellor Angela Merkel opposes a joint EU rescue fund.
Sarkozy, currently chairman of the European Council, plans to meet with his British, German and Italian colleagues on Saturday to discuss the crisis on the financial markets.