Sunday 21 February 2010

Greek Bailout By Britain?

Daniel Hannan has, in this post, hit upon a very important question, namely:

"But there is a detail in the report that should set alarm bells ringing in Britain, Sweden and Denmark – the three EU states that remained outside monetary union. If the money were to come only from the Euro-zone states, then Germany’s proportionate share would be between €5.7 and €7 billion (Germany owns 18.93 per cent of ECB stock). According to the Spiegel, however, Germany’s share will be between €4 billion and €5 billion (”ein Betrag von vier bis fünf Milliarden Euro”). How to explain the discrepancy? Well, 30 per cent of ECB shares are held by countries outside the euro. If these states, too, were part of the deal, then Germany’s proportion would indeed fall to between four and five billion euros. And Britain, which owns 14.51 per cent of ECB stocks, would be presented with a bill for between €2.9  and €3.6 billion."

Which begs the question - did Brown lie to Parliament and both Douglas Carswell and Gisela Stuart? As Hannan says, we need to be told!