Merkel calls for European Monetary Fund to provide credit lines to bloc

The euro zone needs an intergovernmental European Monetary Fund (EMF) able to give troubled member states shorter-term credit lines if they run into debt problems that threaten the whole bloc, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview on Sunday.

"If the whole euro zone is in danger, the EMF must be able to give long-term credits in order to help countries," Merkel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. "Such credits would be spread over 30 years and be conditioned on sweeping structural reforms."

She added, "In addition I can imagine the possibility of a credit line that is short-term, five years for example. As such we would be able to take under our wing countries that get into difficulties because of extraordinary circumstances."

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