Spain Wins French Support in Push to Implement June 29 EU Deal

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos won support from his French counterpart, Pierre Moscovici, to push for fast implementation of Europe’s June 29 agreement to use bailout funds to stabilize debt markets.

Spain and France pledge to implement the decisions “fully and rapidly,” according to a joint statement by the ministers who met in Paris today.

Germany has backed away from offering the possibility that Europe’s bailout fund may lend directly to Spanish banks, relieving the struggling sovereign from added debt. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who met De Guindos yesterday in Berlin, told his lawmakers the Spanish government will be on the hook for rescue loans to the country’s banks.

Moscovici and De Guindos also repeated the assertion the Spanish official made in a joint statement with Schaeuble yesterday that the yields investors are demanding to lend to the Spanish government don’t reflect the economy’s fundamentals. Europe’s bailout of Spanish banks will boost confidence in the country’s financial system and strengthen the entire euro area, Moscovici and De Guindos added.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Sills in Madrid at bsills@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net