Euro zone finance ministers approved a 78 billion euro bailout for Portugal but as a condition of the deal insisted that Lisbon ask private bondholders to maintain their exposure to its debt.
Following are some comments made by EU officials and finance ministers after their Monday talks.
EUROPEAN MONETARY AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER OLLI REHN
ON GREECE
"The mission of the EU/IMF troika will continue the review of the programme as there are still some gaps to fill, especially concerning fiscal consolidation and the privatisation programme. Let me emphasise that ... Greece must still step up the implementation of its fiscal and structural reforms and substantiate as well as start implementing the ambitious privatisation programme which is worth about 50 billion euros and do so without any further delay. This is very important part of reducing the debt burden of Greece as the 50 billion euros is equivalent to about 20 percent of the GDP of Greece."
EUROGROUP CHAIRMAN JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER
ON MARIO DRAGHI
"We unanimously designated Mr Mario Draghi, governor of the Italian central bank, as the successor to the outgoing European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
"The decision of the Eurogroup will be forwarded to the Hungarian presidency so that tomorrow the Ecofin council will be able to adopt this proposal, which will immediately be forwarded to the European Pparliament ... so that the European Council in June will be able to take a definitive decision on this issue, which will be made legally effective in July by the Eurogroup and the Ecofin Council."
ON EUROPEAN STABILITY MECHANISM (ESM):
"I am absolutely certain that the treaty on the ESM will be signed as the framework agreement on the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility), by the end of June, so as to enable us to swiftly launch the national ratification procedures so that the ESM can be ready and operational when it is to take over from the EFSF, halfway through 2013."
ON GREECE:
"The situation is extremely difficult in Greece and in respect of Greece. We were satisfied, happy to see that the Greek government has agreed to make progress in quite a short period of time on additional measures, which will enable it to comply with the budgetary limits for 2011 on which we agreed when we launched the Greek programme."
"The privatisation programme is extremely important."
"On the basis of the reports ... by the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF, we will definitively conclude the Greek chapter at our meeting in June."
REUTERS
