LUXEMBOURG (MNI) – Eurozone finance ministers are deeply divided
over whether and how to change the terms of a planned E50 billion
private creditor contribution to the restructuring of Greece’s debts,
agreed on in July, according to an EU official close to the
negotiations.
The issue was hardly discussed at a meeting of Eurozone finance
ministers Monday night, because positions are so polarized, the source
said.
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the
group of euro area finance ministers, said after their meeting on Monday
that “technical adjustments” should be considered because “we have to
take into account that we have experienced changes since the decisions
we have taken on July 21.”
Belgium Finance Minister Didier Reynders Tuesday also left open the
possibility of a larger private sector haircut on Greek sovereign debt
than has so far been agreed.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble already hinted last
month that more demands may be placed on private bond holders.
“Clearly the figures have changed,” Schaeuble said. “I would be
surprised if the conditions for the payout of the next aid tranche [from
Greece's first bailout plan] have changed, but not the conditions for an
additional aid programme,” he added.
Other Eurozone governments and EU finance officials, however, are
concerned that changing the terms of the deal, negotiated by the
currency bloc’s leaders and the Institute of International Finance, a
global banking sector group, would be badly received by the markets.
–Brussels bureau, +324-952-28374; pkoh@marketnews.com
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