Bailouts to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus prevented disorderly default and the spread of bank runs to other countries, the European Commission said, as it defended its response to the euro-area debt crisis.
The rescue programs, with commitments totaling 396 billion euros ($537 billion) since Greece was first bailed out in May 2010, prevented negative economic, financial and social consequences and limited contagion to other nations, the European Union’s executive body said in a report made public today.
“Economic assistance programs prevented the disorderly default of a member state, avoiding much more severe and abrupt social consequences,” the commission said in answers to a questionnaire from the European Parliament.
Lawmakers from the 28-nation assembly are probing how the so-called troika, made up of the commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, conducted itself during work with the four bailout countries. That includes imposing conditions such as programs of privatizations and economic liberalization and monitoring their implementation.
