BERLIN (MNI) – The German government does not expect any decisions
on Greece to be made at the upcoming EU summit this week.
Because of delays related to the health problems of new Greek Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras and the incoming Finance Minister Vassilis
Rapanos, experts from the troika have not yet traveled to Athens, German
government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a press conference here.
Thus, “we don’t expect any decisions on Greece at the EU summit,”
Seibert said.
German finance ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus said at the same
press conference that Greece needed to stick to the fiscal consolidation
and reform program “as it has been agreed.”
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German ZDF public
television on Sunday that Greece has not progressed enough on its reform
path. “Nobody on earth who has followed this issue would think that
Greece has fulfilled what it has promised.”
In a separate interview with the German weekly Bild am Sonntag
published Sunday, Schaeuble said the most important task facing Samaras
“is to enact the agreed program quickly and without further delay
instead of asking how much more others can do for Greece.”
German Economics Minister Philipp Roesler in a ZDF interview on
Monday also urged the new Greek government to stick to the reform
program, warning that “what we’re hearing up to now goes rather in the
opposite direction.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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