Brussels, 10/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 February, eurozone finance ministers discussed possible solutions in order to provide financial assistance to Greece. The president of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, called on his counterparts to set out, by telephone, the support measures that EU member states were willing to use in order to support one of their own.
Discussion focused on the case of Greece. Participants included the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, and the new commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, but the possibility of intervention is still surrounded by discretion. The Greek situation, as well as that in Spain and Portugal, will necessarily be tackled during the meeting of EU heads of state and government opening in Brussels on Thursday (EUROPE 10074). “I would not be surprised if there is a communication on this” after Thursday's summit, a source in circles close to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said on Wednesday.
According to the French daily, Le Monde, of 11 February, Germany - which has long hesitated to intervene - now seems willing to act with other countries such as France (a joint press conference with Sarkozy and Merkel is to be held on Thursday after the summit, even if economic governance is the main subject, the French side says). The question of arrangements and the amount of a hypothetical support mechanism (bilateral aid?), or that of the place to be reserved for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in this kind of operation could be the subject of intense discussion. Any solution, however, should be found in accordance to the “no bailout” clause under Article 25 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
After his lunch on Wednesday in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, reaffirmed his government's determination to improve the country's public finances. Greece is ready to take “all measures necessary” for this, he said, saying the first task will be to reduce the excessive deficit by 4% by 2010. “I want to be quite clear: we have submitted a very precise stability and growth programme which has been approved by the (European) Commission and we are absolutely determined to apply it in every detail”, Papandreou said. Emphasis has been regularly placed on the need for Greece to keep to its commitments over recent days, now appearing as a condition for a form of support that would go beyond the integrated follow-up mechanism already envisaged by the Commission (EUROPE 10070). (A.B./transl.jl)