BRUSSELS—The arrest of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn will have no impact on current European Union and IMF bailout programs or on bailout decisions which need to be made in coming days, a European Commission spokesman said Monday.
The spokesman for EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn also said the commission doesn't consider a reprofiling of debt maturities to be the same thing as a debt restructuring.
On the Mr. Strauss-Kahn arrest in New York, the spokesman said "these events should not have any impact on the programs which are currently under way for Greece or Ireland, for example."
"Nor should they have any impact in terms of decisions which should be taken over the coming hours in respect of Portugal," said the spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio.
WSJ's Sudeep Reddy and David Gauthier-Villars discuss IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest. Namely, how it affects the IMF's operations and his potential presidential candidacy in France. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
EU finance ministers are gathering in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday. They are expected to sign off on a bailout for Portugal and to discuss the situation in Greece.
The spokesman said Mr. Strauss-Kahn's number two at the IMF, John Lipsky, would ensure continuity, calling him a "skillful man" with a "very good knowledge of Europe."
He said contacts between the EU and the IMF remain very regular "at all levels" and that the so-called troika—the EU, IMF, ECB mission—is continuing its work assessing the current Greek program in Athens. The spokesman said the troika is making "important efforts" to ease the conditions of the Greek loan "both on the maturity side and on the interest rate side."
He said Greece's government must move quickly to spell out its privatization plans, saying the sale of state-owned assets "could have potentially a major impact" in paying down the country's debts in coming years.
The spokesman again ruled out a debt restructuring for Greece. He said no decisions would be made on further help for Greece until the fact-finding mission to Athens is complete.
However, he said that the European Commission doesn't necessarily consider a reprofiling of debt maturities to be a debt restructuring. He said reprofiling has difference consequences to a restructuring. "Reprofiling is one concept. Debt restructuring is a different concept."
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@dowjones.com
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