Brussels, 15/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The leaders of the two parties which make up the coalition government in Greece, the PASOK Socialist George Papandreou and the Conservative Antonis Samaras, made a written commitment on Wednesday 15 February to implement the new austerity regime in exchange for a second financial bailout, irrespective of the results of the April general elections. This procedure is one of the three conditions imposed upon Greece by the Eurogroup in return for its green light for the payment of public aid of €130 billion and the partial restructuring of the Greek debt, which will be brought down from 160% to 120% of GDP (see EUROPE 10551). Following the positive vote of the Greek Parliament on the strict budgetary and structural measures to be applied, the government of Lucas Papademos has still to present the eurozone finance ministers with new cuts to the tune of €325 million.
The Eurogroup will be reflecting on ways of slicing up the second Greek package to prevent a Greek default in March, whilst not definitively committing to the whole of the financial aid to be granted. “No money without the implementation” of the commitments, its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, stressed several times. On Tuesday evening, he decided not to convene a ministerial meeting. “It has come to light that additional technical work involving Greece and the troika will be needed in a number of areas, including closing a budgetary discrepancy of €325 million in 2012 and analysing the sustainability of the Greek debt”, he declared in a press release. However, the ministers have held a video conference discussion prior to a regular meeting on Monday 20 February.
The postponement of the Eurogroup meeting, which would have been able to finalise the second Greek programme and subsequently trigger the restructuring operation on the Greek debt, has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Greeks. “We are continually having new conditions imposed on us, which is due to the fact that there are powers in Europe who like to play with fire and believe that the decision (of the European Council) of October on the latest loan cannot be applied and who possibly want Greece out of the eurozone”, lamented Finance Minister Venizelos, on Euronews on Wednesday. A number of political figures from Northern Europe have implied that Greece's departure from the eurozone had not been ruled out, even though this was not their preferred option. On Monday, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Frieden made it clear that the eurozone would be able to continue with 16 countries if Greece did not fulfil its obligations. In the view of Commissioner Neelie Kroes, a country leaving the eurozone would not be the end of the world. As for German Finance Minister Schäuble, he said that the eurozone was better prepared to face a default than it had been two years ago. (MB/transl.fl)