Brussels, 30/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The troika of international lenders to Greece (the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF) have decided to extend their fact-finding mission in Athens, a Greek finance ministry source told this newsletter on Monday 30 July 2012. The source says that Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF's fact-finders in Greece, has told the Greek government: “The troika want to help and they will remain as long as it takes and until the plan is finalised”. The troika had initally planned to leave by August and then return in September (at the end of the school holidays). The same Greek government source would not comment on whether this extension would delay the troika's decision about payment of the next aid instalment, which will depend on the outcome of the current fact-finding mission.
The parties in the coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (New Democracy) are expected to meet in the afternoon of Monday 30 July to discuss the budget cuts to be introduced in 2013 and 2014. ANA press agency in Athens says that on Monday morning, there was a meeting between the leaders of two other government coalition parties - Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left and Évangélos Vénizélos of PASOK - in which the two men agreed on a broad policy stance and for Greece to ask for more time (at least two years) to introduce the budget cuts. On private radio station Antenna, a government spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, said: “This €11.5 billion guarantees our access to far greater amounts of money”. He refused to rule out cuts in pay and pensions, measures that the main opposition party, Syriza, and the General Confederation of Workers Greece (trade union) reject categorically.
Juncker quashes rumours. In an interview in French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday, the head of Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, tried to quash speculation about Greece's going bankrupt and being forced to leave the single currency, saying: “Those who think of resolving the problems of the eurozone in this manner by excluding Greece or letting it fall in the wayside have not identified the reasons for the crisis”. He added that everyone knows that the cost for the other eurozone members would be massive, whether in terms of the shock waves or the discredit this would bring in its wake.
German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in Welt am Sonntag on Sunday: “I cannot see that there is any room left for further concessions” for Greece. (EL/transl.fl)