WARSAW, July 2 (Reuters) – Poland’s finance minister raised doubts on Saturday about Europe’s handling of the Greek debt crisis, pointing to too much emphasis on austerity, too little focus on growth and a short-sightedness in some nations.

The comments by Jacek Rostowski, a British-born economist and academic, have added resonance as Poland took over the six-month presidency of the European Union on Friday. Rostowski will now chair meetings of EU finance ministers and hopes to take part in critical talks among euro-zone finance ministers.

Speaking to the foreign media in Warsaw, Rostowski suggested several missteps had been made in trying to restabilise Greece, saying he was concerned that not enough was being done to bolster Greek gross domestic product and that there had been too much attention focused on cutting spending and raising taxes.

“It’s clear that everybody has made mistakes over the past year and a half,” he said. “We’ve all been behind the curve.

“The International Monetary Fund has a huge amount of experience in how to run these things (rescue programmes). There are lots of things still that we can learn from the way the IMF does things,” he said, without going into specifics.

“In Greece, you need consolidation and growth. You address the debt-to-GDP ratio either in the nominator or the denominator, and really you need to introduce it in both.”

Rostowski’s comments reflect growing concern among EU officials that the strictures being imposed on Greece, including 28 billion euros of austerity measures between now and 2015, are too harsh and may inflict fatal damage on its ailing economy.

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency for the first time on Friday aiming to promote economic reforms and deeper integration in the bloc struggling with debt crisis in the euro zone’s peripheries.

Poland, the EU’s largest ex-communist member, wants to strengthen the single market that it says underpins Europe’s prosperity, to press ahead with enlargement of the bloc into the western Balkans and rebuild trust in the Union’s institutions.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw would play an active role to ensure that member states speak openly about challenges facing the bloc related to the debt crisis, or migration.

“Poles don’t want politicians who engage in rows with Europe. They want politicians who know how to operate in Europe, who can engage with Europe on a business level and who operate professionally. That’s my ambition,” Tusk said on Friday.

Poland also wants to finalize Croatia’s EU accession, start membership talks with Serbia and clinch a trade deal with Ukraine, as well as promote deeper energy and military cooperation within the bloc.

Poland will hold an election in October, midway through its EU presidency, and some fear the campaign will distract Tusk and his ministers from steering the Union through difficult times.

But opinion polls give Tusk’s ruling centrist Civic Platform a strong lead making a change of power unlikely.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union officials are working on a contingency plan for Greece if its parliament rejects an austerity program and the country cannot receive the next instalment of EU/IMF emergency loans, three euro zone sources said on Monday.

The sources said planning had been going on for several weeks and was designed to ensure Greece gets the liquidity needed to avoid default in the absence of the next, 12 billion euro tranche of its emergency loan package, due by mid-July.

As well as preventing default, the aim is to head off any contagion spreading from Greece to Ireland, Portugal and Spain, and the potential knock-on impact on Europe’s banking system, with French and German banks large holders of Greek debt.

The plan is distinct from a French proposal for private sector involvement in a second Greek bailout program and is being discussed despite European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other senior EU officials repeatedly saying that “there is no Plan B for Greece.”

“There’s been thinking about contingency for some time, for several weeks,” one senior euro zone finance official involved in the Greek bailout told Reuters. The other sources seconded that line, saying there was “active planning” to step in if the Greek parliament rejects the austerity program.

“In this sort of situation, you can’t afford not to think about what might happen next,” the first source said.

The sources would not confirm in detail what the current plan involved, but said several options had already been dismissed, including an EU bridging loan to Athens.

BRUSSELS, June 24 (Reuters) – EU leaders appointed Italy’s Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank on Friday and said another Italian would step down from the ECB’s Executive Board early to smooth the process.

In draft conclusions agreed at a summit in Brussels, EU leaders “appointed Mr Mario Draghi president of the European Central Bank from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2019.”

The 63-year-old economist and banker will replace France’s Jean-Claude Trichet, who steps down at the end of October after eight years in the euro zone’s top monetary policy post.

French officials had expressed concern in recent weeks about Draghi’s appointment as it would have meant two Italians being on the ECB’s six-member executive board with no French representation. The other Italian, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, is not due to leave his eight-year post until May 2013.

In April, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Italy would yield Bini Smaghi’s place on the board to a French candidate in return for France’s backing of Draghi for president.

That proved problematic, with Bini Smaghi saying he had absolutely no intention of stepping down early. However, Sarkozy said at the EU summit that Bini Smaghi had told him he would quit his post on the board early.

“Lorenzo Bini Smaghi telephoned me to say that before the end of the year he would be appointed to new duties,” Sarkozy told a news conference, without saying who might replace him.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders appointed Italy’s Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank on Friday and another Italian on the ECB’s executive board agreed to step down to smooth the process, EU sources said.

In draft conclusions agreed at a summit in Brussels, EU leaders “appointed Mr Mario Draghi president of the European Central Bank from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2019.”

The 63-year-old economist and banker will replace France’s Jean-Claude Trichet, who steps down at the end of October after eight years in the euro zone’s top monetary policy post.

French officials had expressed concern in recent weeks about Draghi’s appointment as it would have meant two Italians being on the ECB’s six-member executive board with no French representation. The other Italian, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, is not due to leave his eight-year post until May 2013.

In April, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Italy would yield Bini Smaghi’s place on the board to a French candidate in return for France’s backing of Draghi for president.

But that proved problematic, with Bini Smaghi saying he had absolutely no intention of stepping down early.

EU sources said that Bini Smaghi had assured EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Sarkozy in discussions on Friday that he would relinquish his post in the coming weeks.

BRUSSELS, June 24 (Reuters) – European Union leaders have formally appointed Italy’s Mario Draghi to be the next president of the European Central Bank, draft conclusions from the EU summit showed on Friday.

The decision clears the way for Draghi, 63, to take over from Jean-Claude Trichet when the Frenchman steps down at the end of October after eight years in the job.

“The European Council appointed Mr Mario Draghi president of the European Central Bank from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2019,” a draft of the conclusions obtained by Reuters showed.

At a news conference late on Thursday, Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, said Draghi had not been discussed during the first day of the two-day summit but that his appointment was on the agenda for Friday’s talks.

In recent weeks, French officials had expressed concern about Draghi’s appointement, worried about Italy ending up with two members on the ECB’s executive board. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is already on the six-member panel, which sets interest rates along with the 17 other euro zone central bank governors.

French officials had suggested that Bini Smaghi should replace Draghi as head of the Italian central bank, opening the way for a French person to be appointed to the board.

In April, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Italy would yield Bini Smaghi’s place on the ECB board to a French candidate, in return for France’s backing of Draghi for president.

BRUSSELS/ATHENS, June 23 (Reuters) – European Union leaders will pile pressure on Greece at a summit on Thursday to adopt deeply unpopular austerity measures in return for fresh funds to avert a bankruptcy that could shake the global economy.

Euro zone governments are meanwhile arm-twisting banks and insurers to maintain their exposure to Greek sovereign debt when their bonds mature, despite the heightened risk of default, as part of a planned second financial rescue for Athens.

Combining brow-beating and moral support, leaders will tell Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou they will release the next 12 billion euros ($17.2 billion) in emergency aid on July 3, to prevent Athens running out of money in mid-July, provided the Greek parliament adopts key economic reforms next week.

While he has expressed confidence over that vote in public, Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said Papandreou had voiced doubts in a private telephone call.

“Prime Minister Papandreou has serious doubts about whether the necessary steps will pass in parliament,” Radicova told the Slovak parliament’s European affairs committee.

Inspectors from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund met new Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in an effort to iron out differences on the bailout programme, which he has said he wants to amend to appease an angry Greek public.

“Venizelos will not go to Brussels. He will continue the negotiations with the troika,” a lawmaker who took part in a parliamentary committee with the minister told Reuters. “There is a gap of 3.8 billion euros out of the total package of 28 billion euros (in the mid-term fiscal plan) which should be discussed with the troika.”

BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) – European leaders will try to convince Greeks and financial markets when they meet on Thursday and Friday that they have a workable plan to help Athens avoid a debt default and return to financial stability.

Using a mixture of arm-twisting and moral support, the leaders will tell Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that they will release the latest 12 billion euros of an emergency aid package, helping Athens to avoid a potential mid-July default, as long as it commits itself to economic reform.

Greece is not formally on the agenda of the two-day summit — the fourth this year as the leaders try to get to grips with the crisis consuming Greece, Portugal and Ireland — but the issue will not escape discussion, diplomats said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has underlined that no formal decisions on Greece will be taken at the meeting, but the gathering will be monitored intensely by financial markets for any messages it sends on whether the EU plan can work.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stressed on Wednesday that much more than the future of Greece was at stake.

“If there were a failure to resolve that situation, it would pose threats to the European financial system, the global financial system, and to European political unity, I would conjecture, as well,” he said.

The summit agenda also involves agreeing to increase the size of the euro zone’s current bailout fund, completing the creation of a permanent crisis fund from June 2013, and discussions on Libya, Syria and EU enlargement to Croatia.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – In a spartan office on a quiet tree-lined street near the power centers of Brussels sits a man whose role is to promote Libya’s opposition movement in Europe.

Christian D. de Fouloy, 69, a French-American lobbyist and businessman, volunteers his time to Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) in support of its newly appointed ambassador to the European Union, Mohamed Farhat.

A smooth-talking PR man whose perfect English is accented with French, De Fouloy sees his job as developing better communications between Brussels, Benghazi, Washington, Paris and London to ensure the TNC is seen as the appropriate government-in-waiting once Muammar Gaddafi goes or is ousted.

That means ensuring that Farhat meets all his EU counterparts and becomes recognized as the legitimate representative of Libya, even though the former Libyan ambassador to the EU, who defected, still lives in Brussels.

To complicate matters, Farhat, 38, was previously the first secretary in the Brussels embassy and worked for the former ambassador. He was catapulted into the top job this week largely because of his good ties to the TNC leadership.

“He still has a key to the embassy, he still has a diplomatic license plate on his car, he’s never left Brussels,” De Fouloy said of Farhat, who has met British, Italian and Maltese diplomats in the past few days and has more appointments lined up.

“We are introducing him around, making house calls, making sure he meets the European Parliament, the French, the Germans, the Spanish, the Russians and Catherine Ashton,” he said, referring to the EU’s foreign affairs chief.

BRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) – Plans for a second bailout of Greece are taking shape, with a proposal for a three-year package worth 80 to 100 billion euros set to be ready in the next two weeks, euro zone official sources said on Tuesday.

But key aspects of the scheme, including how to persuade private sector investors to bear part of the burden, have not been resolved and time is tight before late-June meetings at which officials hope to present the plans to decision-makers.

If approved by euro zone governments, the package will consist of revenue from three sources: sales of Greek state assets, a rollover of Greek debt by private sector creditors, and fresh funds from the euro zone bailout facility and the International Monetary Fund, the sources told Reuters.

Euro zone leaders hope the second package, which would effectively replace a 110 billion euro bailout deal agreed with Athens in May last year, will give Greece time to overhaul its economy and return to growth, allowing it to start reducing its 340 billion euro sovereign debt mountain.

The balance between the three sources of funds will depend on the outcome of discussions with private holders of bonds, and on how much can be raised from the sale of Greek assets.

But the sources said current thinking was that about 25-30 billion euros would come from asset sales; 30 billion from the debt rollover; and the rest, 30-40 billion euros, from the IMF and the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. As with rescues of Ireland and Portugal, the EFSF would provide two-thirds of official loans and the IMF one-third.

The new package would fund Greece for up to three years, or until it can return to financial markets to fund itself, which is now expected to be in mid-to-late 2014 or early 2015, the sources said. The initial bailout scheme envisaged Greece gradually returning to the markets from next year.