BERLIN (MNI) – The European Union wants to prevent an insolvency of
Greece and is eying a renewed haircut on the country’s public debt,
the German weekly Die Zeit reported in a pre-release of its Thursday
edition.
According to the paper, the haircut would this time also apply to
Greek bonds held by public creditors. A further rescue package for
Greece is seen as unlikely because too many member states oppose it, Die
Zeit reported. There are EU discussions, however, on whether Greece
could receive funds from the new EU growth stimulus package.
It is still unclear by how much Greece is lagging behind its budget
consolidation goals because the troika of EU Commission, ECB and IMF is
still assessing the country’s fiscal position, the paper reported.
Greece will be granted at most a couple of months more time to meet
its goals but not the two years desired by Athens, a senior member of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU-FDP government coalition said
earlier on Wednesday.
“One can talk about a few weeks or maybe a couple of months but
surely not about a delay of two years,” FDP parliamentary leader Rainer
Bruederle, a former Economics Minister, told German ZDF public
television.
Bruederle said the Eurozone is now better prepared for a Greek exit
from the Eurozone than two years ago when the debt crisis started.
Still, he acknowledged that this will “not be an easy story and will
also prompt significant turbulences.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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