The Greek government has been told by its eurozone partners not to expect debt relief any time soon, amid fading hopes of decisive action to stop the country tumbling out of the currency union.
Eurozone finance ministers arriving for emergency talks in Brussels made it clear they were waiting on Athens to sign up to further reforms and were in no hurry to discuss debt relief.
Finance ministers are preparing the way for a summit of eurozone leaders that gets underway on Tuesday evening. The summit, called after Greeks rejected the eurozone-drafted bailout plan in a referemdum on Sunday, is seen as one of the last real chances to secure a deal to stop Greece crashing out of the euro.
Greek banks are on the brink of running out of cash, but senior European figures are already dampening hopes of any breakthrough. “What we are going to do today is to talk to each other and restore order,” said the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, adding that there would be no overnight solution.
In a coordinated press statement, the leaders of France and Germany called on Greece to come up with “serious and credible proposals” at Tuesday’s summit which are consistent with its wish to stay in the eurozone.
The demand was echoed by finance ministers, who stressed they wanted to see the Greek government sign up to reforms. Several made it clear they would not support any write-off of Greek debt.
“We are not in the business of renegotiating debt,” said Finland’s finance minister, Alexander Stubb. “That was already done in 2011 and 2012,” referring to re-structuring of Greek debts that imposed heavy losses on private creditors.
Stubb said Finland’s commitments to Greece had proved to be more than anyone ever expected, totalling 10% of the Finnish government budget.
0 comments:
Post a Comment