Mario Draghi à esquerda com Norbert Lammert, president of the Bundestag, em frente ao Reichstag, o Parlamento alemão, que o Presidente do BCE visitou a semana passada Fonte: Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg
Mario Draghi, o presidente do BCE, não dá muitas entrevistas. Esta semana foi uma rara oportunidade de o ler nesse registo. Sem surpresa, a entrevista foi concedida a uma revista alemã (Der Spiegel) e é, pelas perguntas e respostas, uma conversa para “alemão ler”: está lá o receio da inflação, o controlo sobre o desregramento do Sul, os riscos para a independência do BCE do novo programa de compra de obrigações, os embates com Weidmann (o presidente do Bundesbank), as taxas de juro baixas demais na Alemanha (sim, baixas demais) e até o quanto Draghi gosta de passear nos museus de Frankfurt. Escolhemos aqui algumas passagens que podem ser relevantes para Portugal.
Sobre o programa de compra de obrigações (e a elevada probabilidade de não se aplicar a Portugal)
SPIEGEL: We have our doubts about that. Would you really refuse to help a country that does not fulfil the reform requirements?
Draghi: Of course. If a country does not adhere to what has been agreed, we will not resume the programme. We have announced that we will suspend operations once a programme country is under review. We will then ask the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission to assess whether the country is keeping the conditions of the agreement, and only after a positive assessment will we resume operations.
SPIEGEL: One only needs to consider the example of Greece currently to get an idea of how credible such statements are. The government in Athens repeatedly broke their commitments to the troika (made up of the IMF, ECB and European Commission) and yet they are now about to receive the next tranche of financial assistance anyway.
Draghi: That is not an appropriate comparison. Greece will not be considered at all for our programme because it is targeted exclusively at countries that finance themselves, now as before, on the capital market. This is something completely different.
Como fazer pressão sobre Governos:
SPIEGEL: Experience teaches us somewhat differently. If you artificially lower interest rates, it makes it easier for governments to become indebted and decreases the pressure for reform.
Draghi: High interest rates are the most significant source of pressure for a government resisting reform, I agree with you there. This is exactly why we insist on adherence to strict conditions. Moreover, we do not want to completely eliminate differences in interest rates between countries. We will only intervene if the differences become excessive.
A soberania e um “ministro das Finanças” europeu
SPIEGEL: Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has proposed giving the EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs a direct say in national budgets. What do you think of that proposal?
Draghi: I am fully in favour of it. Governments would be wise to seriously consider it. I firmly believe that, in order to restore confidence in the euro area, countries need to transfer part of their sovereignty to the European level.
SPIEGEL: But it is precisely that that many governments are unwilling to do. Why are they so against it?
Draghi: A lot of governments have yet to realise that they lost their national sovereignty a long time ago. Because, in the past, they have allowed their debt to pile up, they now need the goodwill of the financial markets. That sounds like a paradox, but it is nonetheless : it is only once the euro area countries are willing to share sovereignty at the European level that they will gain sovereignty.
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