THE EUROPEAN ECONOMICS COMMISSIONER, Olli Rehn, has insisted that the 16 members of the European Monetary Union must avoid ‘alarmism’ as they meet in Brussels to discuss the debt crisis threatening to tear the single currency apart.

Speaking ahead of this evening’s meeting of the 16 Eurozone finance ministers – which itself precedes a meeting of all 27 European finance ministers tomorrow – Rehn said he was concerned about what Reuters called “the divisive tone” of the debate over the Irish situation.

Rehn added that the main concern over the Eurozone’s fiscal future was not that of a funding problem for the Irish government itself, but for the banking sector, saying that was where the “real problems” were.

The Irish Times notes, however, that Rehn conceded the two concerns were “connected”.

“The Irish sovereign is well funded into the middle of next year,” the Finn said. “The real problem is in the banking system. But they are interconnected. You cannot separate them.”

Rehn also confirmed that the European Commission was holding talks with the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on how the Irish banking crisis was best resolved, saying the three parties were working “to resolve the serious problem of the Irish banking sector”.

“Ireland is a very different case” to that of Spain and Portugal, RTÉ says he added, and therefore the bloc’s finance ministers “have to keep a cool head and determination to work in order to find solutions”.