European Commissioner: The aid for Romania will come from a special EU Fund

The EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Joaquin Almunia, officially declared that Romania demanded economic aid from the European Union and that the request will be analyzed together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to Almunia, „the aid would come from a special EU fund, already tapped by Hungary and Latvia, for its members outside the euro zone with balance-of-payment problems”, Reuters reports.

„At the moment we have resources that are more than sufficient to meet the needs of a further European contribution in the context of Romania. I don’t think we’ll need to go beyond present limits even if there are new applications from countries”, said Almunia, quoted by Reuters.

„We will need to have conversations with the Romanian authorities, with the IMF. We will need to estimate financial needs and establish a list of conditions,” Almunia said.

The IMF and the EU have asked Hungary and Latvia to tighten their fiscal policies as a condition for loan, a demand that is likely to be unpopular in Romania, which has faced public protests against hardships coming from the crisis, the press agency notes.