Brussels, 15/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Ecofin Council will give its opinion on the different recommendations made by the Commission for monitoring implementation of the commitments made by Athens. At the same time, the Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, has called on the Greek authorities to take further measures. According to the Commissioner: “Risks... are materialising, and therefore there is a clear case for additional measures”. Mr Rehn was questioned by the press before the Eurogroup meeting on Monday 15 February and explained that “we expect that in due course... the (Greek) government will take additional measures to reach this objective” to reduce the deficit by 4% of the country's GDP in 2010. Jean-Claude Juncker immediately pointed out that the question of additional measures would be at the heart of the discussions between finance ministers. He indicated that “we must verify whether this is possible or not” for Greece to obtain its objective “and everything will hinge upon the responses provided to this crucial question”. George Papaconstantinou, the finance minister, opposed this idea and said that the possibility of requesting additional measures ought not to be formulated before implementation of the measures already announced (which are due to begin in March). If, it then appears necessary at that time, “I assure you”, these additional measures will be taken, explained Mr Papaconstantinou.
EU ministers are not, however, expected to provide any further clarification on the practical modalities involving possible aid to Greece. In an interview with the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, on Saturday 13 February, Mr Junker reaffirmed that “everyone has to help themselves” and “European solidarity can only be provided in certain circumstances”. Mr Junker simply underlined the fact that “at the moment, I am unable to stipulate exactly what measures … We have a lot of instruments available and we will use them if necessary”. In the future, Eurogroup is expected to assume a greater and tougher role on the question of competitiveness in Euro-zone countries, explained Mr Junker: “We have to prevent differences continuing to grow. A zone with a common currency can only be viable in the long-term if the differences between the different economies' current accounts, making up that zone, do not become too large”.
Further doubts continued to surface with regard to transparency questions linked to the way in which Greece used its statistical data in the past. In 2001, US banks may have helped Greece conceal some of the country's debt by using a sophisticated mechanism (which was authorised by the Greek Ministry of Finance at the time). The spokesperson for Commissioner Rehn explained that Eurostat had urged the Greek authorities to provide more clarification regarding this affair by the end of February. (A.B./transl.fl)