Brussels, 14/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is keeping up the pressure on Greece and Italy to get them to respect their economic and public spending promises as they introduce a national unity government of technocrats to restore confidence on the money markets and among EU partner countries.
On Monday 14 November, a spokesperson for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said that the Commission expected the main political parties to make a clear promise in writing to respect the deal reached at the eurozone summit for the second Greek rescue programme, saying that there was not an actual deadline for this but the earlier the better in order to restore confidence. The demand formulated by the Eurogroup for a written pledge is a necessary precondition for the payment of the European section of the next aid instalment for Greece (€8 billion), needed to ensure the country can meet December's debt payments. On Monday 14 November, the leader of the conservative New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, backed the measures already introduced in Greece to meet the country's budget targets, but refused to sign any document or to support the introduction of new austerity measures. The Eurogroup is demanding new measures for 2013 and 2014. The new Greek prime minister, Lucas Papademos, unveiled his new government team on Monday to the Greek parliament before they are sworn in on Wednesday.
Italy. Although Italy has a new government, with Mario Monti replacing Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister over the weekend (see related article), the Commission spokesperson said that the Commission's analysis of the Italian economy had not changed and cuts in public spending and the introduction of structural reforms were an imperative, pointing out the Commission's Autumn Economic Forecasts which predict growth in GDP of no more than 0.1% in 2012 in Italy, reduction of the public deficit from 4% to 2.3% and a stabilisation of the debt at 120.5% of GDP (see EUROPE 10493). On Monday, Italy successfully rolled over €3 billion of its debt at an average of 6.2%, 1% more than for the last emission (5.32% in October 2011). (MB/transl.fl)