Brussels, 03/12/12 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 2 December, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, made a move towards writing down some of the Greek bonds owned by public authorities (OSI, or official sector involvement), along the lines of the voluntary write-down of bonds list spring held by the private sector (PSI, or private sector involvement), which removed no less than €107 billion from the Greek debt burden.
In an interview with Bild Am Sonntag, Merkel said that if Greece manages one day to get by with its income and not take out any new debt, then the situation would have to be examined and re-assessed. In the stream of talks between eurozone finance ministers on how to make the Greek debt sustainable, Berlin has always opposed any OSI, and this was reiterated by Merkel at the European Summit of 16 November (see EUROPE 10733).
In the newspaper interview, the German chancellor said that if any write-down were to happen, it would not before 2014-2015, if all goes according to plan. In other words, at least a year after the next general elections in Germany (22 September 2013).
On Friday, the German parliament voted in favour of the difficult deal struck by the eurozone on Tuesday 27 November on getting Greece's debt back on track (see EUROPE 10739). Eurozone finance ministers are meeting again on Monday to assess the debt buy-back programme launched by Athens that same day (see related article). (EL/transl.fl)