Risk Europe: S&P slammed for linking Greece, Portugal downgrades to ESM

Eurozone bail-out vehicle doesn't hurt existing bondholders, EC official argues

European commission

One of the engineers of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) has attacked rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) for tying its March 29 downgrade of Portugal and Greece to the ESM. Speaking at the Risk Europe conference in Brussels, Benjamin Angel, a unit head at the European Commission's (EC) directorate general for economic and financial affairs, called a recent S&P report "stupid" and criticised the "strange decision" to blame the rating cuts on expected borrowings from the ESM.

As the ESM

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