BRUSSELS, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Financial Times Deutschland said the European Central Bank was pressuring Portugal to reach out for an international bailout.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed source that said a variety of EU nations and the ECB were leaning on Portugal to accept an aid package in order to shore up investor confidence before the domino effect of investors fleeing European government bonds reaches Spain, which has a far larger economy.
Reports are conflicting, as some of the quotes are couched in sensitive diplomatic terms with financial ministers trying to instill confidence in the market while dealing with a crisis.
The Wall Street Journal Friday quoted European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso adamantly rejecting the suggest that the commission was pressuring Portugal at all.
"It's absolutely, completely false. It (Portugal) has neither been asked for and neither have we suggested it. It is absolutely false," Barroso said at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
But EUobserver said Friday, referring to a story in Die Welt, that the European Commission was attempting to find support to double the $582 billion fund the European Union had assembled to help member states deal with the debt crisis.
German representative Axel Weber in Paris said rescue funds already assembled -- including $331 billion from the International Monetary Fund and $79 billion in separate EU fund -- were "more than enough to counter attacks on the eurozone."
"If it's not enough, then one will have to increase the commitment," he said.
