Euro zone bailout fund could become European Monetary Fund - Dijsselbloem

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), could, in the future, be turned into a European Monetary Fund, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the European Parliament on Thursday. "The ESM in my mind should be in the lead in designing, negotiating and monitoring future programmes. Also the ESM could in the future have a broader preventive mandate in line with the IMF, how the IMF does it now, by developing its own country reports to assure objective macroeconomic analysis," he said. "One way to move forward in strengthening the (euro zone) is to develop the ESM further into a European Monetary Fund," he said. (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski)