The Netherlands would be in favour of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) taking on a greater financial role in the eurozone bailout fund, or EFSF, the Dutch prime minister told parliament on Saturday. "The Netherlands is in favour of a bigger role for the IMF, both in expertise but also financially," Mark Rutte said. "The discussion within the IMF and G20 on giving the IMF greater financial power is very welcome."
He said that Brazil, Russia, India and China had reacted positively to an IMF agreement to evaluate the idea of giving the IMF greater financial power and that the Netherlands was urging Europe to take a positive stance on that. The prime minister repeatedly declined to answer parliament questions on other means to strengthen the EFSF to combat Europe's debt crisis, stressing that this was exactly what was being discussed by eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
Roland Plasterk, finance spokesman for the country's largest opposition party Labour PvdA, said he was in favour of giving the European Central Bank a greater role in the fund. The minority coalition government of Liberals and Christian Democrats needs the support of pro-European opposition parties such as Labour for new measures to solve the debt crisis because its main ally, the eurosceptic Freedom Party, is firmly opposed to bailouts.
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