Polish presidency: "Better work" needed on EU bailout mechanisms

The tools the European Union has at its disposal to bail out financially strained member states need to be improved, Polish officials said Saturday as their six-month stint at the helm of the bloc got underway, according to dpa. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have had to loan money from the EU and the International Monetary Fund amid a global financial crisis, with Greece returning to the rescue well twice. "We should consider a different fix than adding successive loans with high interest," Polish Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak told reporters in Warsaw, a day after his country officially took over the EU's rotating presidency from Hungary. "The mechanisms created for Greece, Ireland and Portugal, these mechanisms still need better work," Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski had said earlier in the day. "We can all admit that we have been slightly behind the curve in creating these mechanisms." It wasn't until after the first Greek bailout in May 2010 that EU finance ministers created a eurozone rescue fund, the three-year European Financial Stability Facility. A permanent alternative, the European Stability Mechanism, is to take its place in 2013.