Greece is and will continue to remain in the Eurozone and the Eurozone is indivisible, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Monday evening, following a meeting of the Eurogroup in Brussels.
Speaking at a press conference, Varoufakis expressed optimism that an agreement will be reached in the end. “I have no doubt there negotiations will continue in the next few days and that in the end there will be a deal which will be therapeutic for Greece,” the minister told journalists.
The minister said the aim of these talks was to find common ground that would create a time table of four to six months to achieve a long-term loan agreement for growth between Greece, the Eurozone and the IMF. He said the real reason there was no agreement on Monday was the discord on the essence of the program, the same one which failed to stabilize Greece, created a humanitarian crisis and made reforms especially difficult to implement.
Commenting on the previous Eurogroup meeting last Wednesday, Varoufakis said Greece rejected the joint communiqué which included mention of an extension and successful completion of the current bailout program. “We rejected it because we believe this program cannot be completed successfully,” he noted adding this program is part of the problem and not the solution.
Continuing with today’s meeting, the minister said that during the European Summit meeting, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed on the need to start technical discussions, in order to find common ground between the current program and the Greek government’s plans for a new contract with Europe.
Varoufakis reveled he was ready to sign the draft of the joint communiqué presented to him by EU Commissioner on Economy, Pierre Moscovici, before the start of the meeting. He said this draft mentioned extending the loan agreement which would lead to a four-month intermediate program that would serve as a transitional stage towards a new growth contract for Greece. The same document included the provision of technical assistance on behalf of the Commission for accelerating the implementation of reforms.
“We were and continue to be willing not to take any unilateral initiative during the transitional phase, until the summer, which wouldn’t cause any fiscal derailment and would not include any actions that the ECB would consider as a threat for the stability of the banking sector,” Varoufakis noted.
He also said the only condition set by the Greek side was that no measures would be implemented that would cause recession – no pension cuts, or VTA hikes – especially in regions of Greece where tourism activities are highly developed.
Unfortunately, he said, the text which the Greek side was ready to sign was withdrawn shortly before the Eurogroup started by Dijsselbloem himself and was replaced by another. At Wednesday’s extraordinary Eurogroup meeting, the Greek side had been pressured to sign an extension of the ongoing fiscal program in exchange for a vague phrase about flexibility in the program’s implementation, he said.
The current government has decided not to continue applying the particular program, and its intention throughout the meetings was to reach an agreement, he said, but that was proven impossible since Greece’s partners were unable to clarify what they meant by the word “flexibility” — for example, they did not clarify the percentage that low pensions should be cut.
Under these conditions, Varoufakis said, it was impossible for Greece to sign, but the Greek side is ready to do whatever necessary to find an honorable compromise within the next few days. The government, he added, will assume any initiatives, as long as any solution proposed does not aggravate the social crisis.
Asked whether he thought there is a possibility of reaching an agreement by Friday — the period of grace granted by the Eurogroup — he said the history of the European Union is full of crises that were overcome. The Greek side’s goal is to draft a statement that will allow both sides to continue to explore whether and to what degree there is common ground, he said.
The Greek side is not bluffing and means what it says, he stressed, while adding that if a four-month extension were granted to Greece, it would allow enough time to reach a new agreement with the Europeans. Europe ought to adapt to the difficult case that Greece has a new government and does not want to implement a program that failed, he stressed.
Finally, asked whether he intended to apply for an extension to the fiscal program, the minister said that the European side had to come to some arrangement within the next 48 hours first. “I have no doubt that within the next 48 hours Europe will manage to submit to us a document based on which we will start real work and put into action a new agreement for Greece,” Varoufakis said.
(source: ana-mpa)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
