Euro Crisis Cannot Be Solved With Loans, De Jager Says

Lending money to euro-region countries such as Spain and Italy that are struggling to cut their budget deficits won’t solve their fiscal difficulties or save the euro, Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said.

“You cannot solve this with loans,” he told reporters before a meeting of euro-area finance ministers in Brussels today. “But you have to fundamentally solve the problems of these countries. Spain’s government has said ‘we will do this.’ The commitment is there, though it takes time.”