Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 34: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a briefing on the content and decisions of last month's meeting of the euro group. [14226/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The usual meeting of the Eurogroup took place on 16 May 2011. The President of the Eurogroup, Mr. Juncker, outlined at the press conference after the meeting the main items discussed at the meeting. It is usual practice for the President of the Eurogroup to speak on behalf of the Eurogroup after each meeting. The main points at the meeting were that: Ministers unanimously agreed to grant financial assistance to Portugal in response to the Portuguese authorities' request of 7 April 2011. A Eurogroup Press Release on the granting of financial assistance to Portugal was issued after the meeting.

Ministers also discussed the implementation of the Greek adjustment programme. The Commission proposal for a Council decision amending Council decision 2011/77 granting Union financial assistance to Ireland was endorsed. Proposed amendments to the European Financial Stability Facility Framework agreement were briefly discussed with the view to increasing the effective capacity of the Facility. Ministers also unanimously agreed to support Mario Draghi as the successor to Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the European Central Bank.