Brussels, 21/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission believes that Europe's view of how to ensure the viability of Greece's debt cannot be reviewed until after the next fact-finding mission by the troika of lenders (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMFund) in October.
Praising the coherence and effectiveness of the Greek programme in difficult circumstances, a Commission spokesperson, Chantal Hughes, said that the next state in assessing the viability of the Greek debt would occur when the next troika mission takes place in the autumn. She was playing down comments by Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn in reports by Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that one possible option for making the Greek debt viable could be to extend the repayment deadlines of the loans already granted. Hughes said they had not reached that stage.
Rehn says the crucial question was Greece's ability to implement the structural reforms laid down in its current aid programme, along with achieving a structural budget surplus. Greek newspaper Kathimerini says that Greece had a primary budget surplus (not including debt-servicing costs) of €2.6 billion in the first half of 2013, compared with a deficit of €3 billion in the first half of 2012.
The Commission says that Commissioner Rehn's comments are not connected in any way with the statements by the German finance minister the day before. During the German general election campaigning, Wolfgang Schäuble said that Greece would need a new aid programme in addition to the two received since May 2010. Almost a month ahead of the elections, the German government remains totally hostile to any write-off of any of Greece's debt.
The IMF says that Europe has to find a way of filling the Greek budget gap, estimated at €4.4 billion for 2014 and €6.5 billion in 2015 (see EUROPE 10900). Under the second programme, Greek debt is supposed to fall to 124% of GDP in 2020 and well below 110% in 2022. (MB/transl.fl)