German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautiously welcomed the notion of a IMF-style European monetary fund today, adding that several issues would need to be addressed before it could be implemented, dpa reported. "I think the idea is good and interesting," the chancellor told foreign journalists in Berlin. The notion of a European Monetary Fund, comparable to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was floated by Finance Minster Wolfgang Schaeuble at the weekend. "Of course, there are a number of questions," Merkel said, such as how much independence such a fund would have from the European Commission, and who would pay into it. The chancellor said that European treaties would need to be altered first, as current regulations prevent countries within the Eurozone from bailing one another out. "However, this is a discussion we will need to have," Merkel said, adding that the available instruments were insufficient to tackle problems such as Greece's national debt.
