Germany Economy Minister Wants EMF Modeled On The IMF: Press 10  MAR   BERLIN - Germany's Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle wants a possible future European Monetary Fund to be modeled on the International Monetary Fund, the daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on its website Wednesday. BERLIN (MNI) - Germany's Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle wants a possible future European Monetary Fund to be modeled on the International Monetary Fund, the daily Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) reported on its website Wednesday. In a letter to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Bruederle said a European Monetary Fund should grant financially troubled Eurozone member states credits or guarantees to prevent insolvency, FTD wrote. The interest on these loans should be above market rates and tied to concrete conditions, he argued. The starting capital of the European Monetary Fund should be provided "by all member states according to a firm quota" depending on their economic strength and external interdependence, the paper quoted Bruederle's letter as saying. A country's voting rights in the Fund should depend on its share in the capital, he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said she supported the idea of creating a European Monetary Fund, but she stressed that the EU Treaties would first have to be changed in order to allow financial aid for troubled Eurozone member states. "I think the idea is good and interesting," Merkel said at a briefing for the foreign press in Berlin. One has to reflect "on ways in which the EU and the Eurozone can help legally" when a member state runs into financial problems, she said. "This means that the treaties have to be changed," she stressed. One has to discuss "how we have to change the Treaties so that the Eurozone can react better" to sovereign debt crises. Merkel noted that there is already a special fund to support financially ailing EU member states that are not part of the Eurozone. "If we want to solve the problems [of the Eurozone] without the IMF we need selected instruments" also for the Eurozone, she argued. The Chancellor added that even opposition from the European Central Bank to the idea of a European Monetary Fund would not stop her "discussing the idea further." Indeed, that opposition has materialized -- and from fellow Germans to boot. ECB Executive Board member Juergen Stark threw cold water on the idea earlier this week. And Council member Axel Weber -- who heads Germany's Bundesbank -- said that while he would favor an initiative to strengthen fiscal discipline in the Eurozone, lending to member states in need could not be part of the remit. --Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com [TOPICS: M$G$$$,MT$$$$,M$X$$$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$] 3/10/2010 5:38:00 AM