The European Union (EU) is ready to raise its ceiling of aid to member states facing financing troubles to 25 billion euros (32 billion U.S. dollars), an EU official said on Wednesday.
Joaquin Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, told a press conference in Brussels that he had made the proposal for more EU aid to member states, which is due to be discussed by EU finance ministers at their monthly meeting next week.
"We sent to the council (of member states) proposals for increasing this ceiling to 25 billion euros," he said.
Under current rules, the EU can only provide as much as 12 billion euros in the form of so-called medium-term financial assistance facility to help non-euro member states stabilize their economies before they adopt the single currency.
Earlier Wednesday, the EU announced that it would lend Hungary 6.5 billion euros, which came from the facility, in a joint bid with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country deal with its economic woes arising from the global financial crisis.
Hungary is so far the only EU member state to seek international aid, but other member states, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, are also facing a difficult time due to less inflow of foreign capital.
"We know some other members of the EU are under stress in the financial markets and we are ready to act," Almunia said.
Source:Xinhua
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