EUROPEAN Union (EU) finance ministers will discuss this week how they might penalise rating agencies that pass inappropriately harsh judgment on countries, a senior EU politician said yesterday.
Building on remarks that he wants a new EU markets watchdog to be able to fine rating agencies, Didier Reynders, the finance minister of acting EU president Belgium, said: “It must be possible to penalise. If after some weeks or months it is possible to say it (a downgrade) was a wrong signal, what is the responsibility of the rating agency?
“It is quite difficult to say that there is no responsibility if it is possible to prove it was a wrong analysis, a wrong signal.”
