The leading US trio of credit rating agencies is likely to soon face European competition, Polish Premier Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Friday, days after a cut to Portugal's debt rating angered Europe's leaders.
"It is not for the European Commission to create rating agencies," Barroso told reporters in Warsaw following a meeting with Tusk. "But ... there are a lot of competencies in Europe, so I would not be surprised if we see more competition." "I wouldn't be surprised if in the foreseeable future ... there would be some attempts to create a European rating agency," Tusk, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, added.
"Nobody is looking for new messengers whose task would be to provide only good news," he noted. "It is key that the news related to the financial and economic situation in companies and countries is as objective as possible." The EU has often railed against credit rating agencies for giving negative assessments on the single currency's weakest economies.
US-based Moody's downgraded Portugal's rating to junk on Tuesday, saying that the country would struggle to bring its debt under control despite a 78-billion-euro (112-billion-dollar) bailout and may even require a second rescue package. Barroso was among the EU officials who led the charge against the decision the next day, pointing to the fact that Portugal was still in the early stages of implementing austerity measures that have been demanded in exchange for the bailout.