BERLIN The new Greek government on Friday left began negotiations on its bailout with its European partners, but rejected an expected extension program and supervision of international inspectors.
The Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, met in Athens with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup, in what both described as “constructive” discussions on the objectives of the new Government, Reuters reported.
But the meeting of one hour did not seem to help bridge the gap between the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European countries, which have insisted that Greece should respect the obligations established in the rescue of 240,000 million euros.
The meeting with Dijsselbloem was the first of a series of meetings to Varoufakis, who will travel to London, Paris and Rome next week to garner support for his government.
Tsipras, who will visit Cyprus on Monday on his first visit abroad, also will be in Rome on Tuesday to meet with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, one of the leading voices in Europe against a strict budget austerity.
But Varoufakis said Greece had no intention of cooperating with a mission of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union and not try to achieve an extension of 28 February rescue program eurozone lenders.
“This platform will allow us to gain the trust of the Greek people,” Varoufakis told reporters after the meeting. “Our first action as a government not will reject the logic of question this program through a request to extend it,” he said.
Dijsselbloem said the decision on the time of redemption would be reached before the end of February , but rejected the initiative of Greece for a special conference on debt is carried forward, saying that there is already scheduled a meeting of the Eurogroup.
“COMPETITIVE” ECONOMY
Varoufakis gave no indication of what Greece would do if he can not reach agreement by that deadline. Athens should be kept under a bailout program of the EU-IMF to ensure that its banks have continued access to ECB funding.
Athens awaits the final stretch of 7,200 million euros (8,130 million) and faces some 10,000 million euros in maturing debt this summer.
The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin gave repeated since the arrival of the new Greek government message, saying that German generosity had already been stretched to the limit and could not accept blackmail.
The Government of Tsipras has taken office without showing any intention to soften its opposition to the bailout program, with the idea of stopping privatization return the employ hundreds of workers redundant and increasing public sector pensions.
Varoufakis said Dijsselbloem assured that Athens plans to implement reforms to make the economy more competitive and have balanced budgets, but would not accept nonviable a “self-powered crisis” deflation and debt.
Meanwhile, Dijsselbloem told the new government to respect the terms of the program between Greece and the euro area and warned against adopting unilateral decision, saying it is important not to reverse the process done so far.
Dijsselbloem said the continued support of Europe depended on Greece to respect its obligations and which was held in Athens decide their position before to move forward together with the Eurozone.
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