Brussels, le 27/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On behalf of the troika of international lenders to Greece (the European Commission, ECB and IMF), troika fact-finders in Athens put pressure on the Greek government to meet its commitments, speaking to the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, on Friday 27 July 2012. A Greek government spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, said: “Initiatives must be taken to ensure the national programme is brought back on track.” The same message had been given the day before by the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, on an official visit to Athens, who said that Greece “must deliver” (see EUROPE 10664).
At a joint press conference with Barroso after their meeting, Antonis Samaras said that Greece would do whatever was needed to get the programme up and running again and said the same to the troika on Friday, adding that he would be raising the question of adjusting the Greek Memorandum of Understanding at the next European Summit (in October 2012). Barroso said the European Commission stood by Greece, which must remain in the eurozone as long as its meets its commitments (see EUROPE 10664).
The coalition government headed by Antonis Samaras is expected on Thursday 26 July to approve the new spending cuts, totalling €11.5 billion. Greek media say Samaras and his partners - Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left and Evangelos Vénizélos of PASOK - have agreed among themselves on the cuts package, but talks will nevertheless resume on Monday 30 July in order to dot the i's. Following the three leaders' meeting, Vénizélos said Europe wanted to “sacrifice” Greece “to put the wind back in the sails of the eurozone”, warning that this would be “suicide for the eurozone” and “society can't stand being bled any more”. He said it woudl take Greece at least two years to meet its budget targets.
Aware that the new round of cuts will be badly received by the Greek population, the government is treading a tightrope in its attempts to keep its lenders on board. The spectre of Greece leaving the eurozone was raised again in Germany ths week, and Latvian finance minister Andris Villas said on LR1 radio station that the sooner it did so, the better.
Payment of the next instalment of aid to Greece will be decided once the outcome of the troika's fact-finding mission has been published (expected in September). A further fact-finding mission is planned for later summer (see EUROPE 10663). The IMF has said that the talks will be continuing into September. (EL/transl.fl)