EU Delays on Bailout Blueprint Pose Euro Risk, Portugal Says

Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos criticized his euro-area counterparts’ foot-dragging on a plan to end the debt crisis, saying delays risked a new round of market turmoil.

“The discussions are taking longer than desirable and delays and hesitations affect the euro zone and the stabilization on the euro,” Teixeira dos Santos said in Brussels today before a meeting of European Union finance ministers. “Each country by itself cannot alone face the challenges of this crisis. We need to do our job, but we also need the community instruments for stabilizing the euro.”