BERLIN (MNI) – Eurozone finance ministers are working under “high
pressure” to prepare the grounds for a common line on further fiscal aid
for Greece at their meeting Tuesday, German Finance Ministry spokeswoman
Marianne Kothe said Monday.
Speaking at a regular government press conference here, Kothe
reminded that the final decision on the aid for Greece could be made
only after Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, had
approved the deal.
Thus, tomorrow’s Eurogroup meeting “will be a first important
political step” before the national parliaments of several Eurozone
member states become involved, she explained.
Kothe declined to comment on whether German Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schaeuble would meet his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici
today. “There are always talks underway,” she said.
Schaeuble’s proposal to pay out to Greece all still outstanding
fiscal aid tranches for this year in one single tranche “is a topic of
the current talks,” she noted.
Kothe was also asked about the remarks of ECB Governing Council
member Jens Weidmann, who said Friday that Greece might need another
debt haircut at the end of its current fiscal consolidation and reform
program. The spokeswoman reaffirmed the strict opposition of the
ministry to a haircut on Greek debt held by the public sector.
Weidmann said Friday that Greece’s public debt is clearly not
sustainable. “The question whether a debt haircut is necessary because
of this is in my view open,” he said.
“One could ask … if it would not make sense to propose a haircut
– which one will need in the end to gain access to capital markets again
– if the reforms, which really matter, have been carried out,” the
president of the Bundesbank said. “The question is, if this could not be
an incentive to carry out the reforms.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@mni-news.com
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