Brussels, 02/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 March, the European Commission adopted a rallying tone, despite calls from Portugal and Spain for comments from the institution regarding the accusations made over the weekend against them by the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras.
Addressing the central committee of Syriza, Tsipras accused the countries of having tried “for obvious political reasons, to derail the negotiations” within the Eurogroup. He went on to say that these states did not want the example of Greece to influence other countries, “especially ahead of elections in Spain”. Syriza's Spanish ally, Podemos, is on the rise, according to the opinion polls.
“What matters now, beyond a few public statements, is for Greece to implement its reforms quickly”, said European Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva. She confirmed that the Commission had received complaints from the Spanish and Portuguese authorities over the weekend, including a request for the Commission to comment on Tsipras' declarations. Andreeva emphasised the Commission's mediation role between the parties.
The spokesperson to the German Ministry of Finance, Martin Jäger, said on Monday that Tsipras' comments were “a very unusual mistake according to European criteria, that is not done within the Eurogroup”. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, also reacted publicly over the weekend, stating that he was not responsible for the “frustration created by the Greek radical Left by making promises it knew it could not keep, as has been demonstrated ”.
On Monday, speaking on the radio station RFI, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said that there had been no “betrayal on the part of Mr Tsipras” of his voters and stressed that a balance had had to be struck between the votes of the Greek electorate and keeping the commitments made by Greece. “We must not think that Syriza has been reduced to silence”, he said, stressing that the government was going to be able to apply part of its programme. He also said that the Lithuanian finance minister had commented to his Greek counterpart that Greece had a minimum wage twice as high as Lithuania's and that the Greek government wanted to increase this minimum wage further with the money it owes its partners. However, the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, explained that this move only concerns the private sector.
Short-term Greek financing. The President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday that if Greece got to work right away, there could be a first disbursement of aid some time in March. “But that would require progress and not just intentions”, the Dutchman warned. “I would be open to work with tranches. The remaining money could be cut up in parts, but there would have to be very short-term progress”, he explained. “We will not take the tranche if the price is the continuation of the memorandum”, however, was the response of the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, speaking at the same day on the radio station Parapolitika. “We could have gotten it; we could have signed the so-called Hardouvelis (his predecessor: Ed) email and received the money. However, this is not what the people voted for”. Greece is asking for the profits to be on-lent by the ECB to be paid directly to the IMF, to which the country has to reimburse €1.5 billion in March. “This is money we are owed, it's our money”, an overpayment, Varoufakis said last week. However, the Eurogroup takes the view that even this would have to be conditional on the implementation of reforms. Speaking through its spokesperson, Annika Breidthardt, the Commission repeated the declaration of the Eurogroup, signed by Greece, in which the Greek minister undertook to honour his payments. “If the first payment is not made in time, we will be in a situation which is known as default”, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, warned.
It is also worth noting that the extension of the programme will not be put to a vote of the Greek parliament, but any agreement coming in after these four months will be. The Spanish Finance Minister, Luis de Guindos, referred on Monday to a third bailout plan of between €30 and €50 billion. (Elodie Lamer)