German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble expressed his skepticism about Greece’s stance in the ongoing negotiations over the country’s public debt.
Mr. Schaeuble spoke to German radio station Deutschlandfunk today and said that while Germany is adamant about Greece remaining in the euro zone, he stressed that the new Greek government must fulfill “the minimum of the claims.”
“The problem is that Greece has lived beyond its means for a long time and that nobody wants to give Greece money anymore without guarantees,” the German finance minister said.
Greece is equally adamant and has drawn a red line on certain requirements in the current bailout program that involve labor rights, insurance and pensions. The Greek delegation insists that 30 percent of required reforms are harsh austerity measures and considers them “toxic.” The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras refuses any talks of continuation of the existing bailout program that expires at the end of February.
Regarding today’s crucial Eurogroup session in Brussels, the German finance minister said that “from what I’ve heard about the technical talks over the weekend, I’m very skeptical, but we will get a report today and then we’ll see.”
After these comments, analysts say that the outcome of today’s meeting of euro zone finance ministers is even more doubtful.
According to a Financial Times report, officials involved in the preparatory discussions, which were intended to define and compare respective positions, said Athens raised far more objections to the existing bailout conditions than the 30 percent cited publicly by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
According to unconfirmed reports, Mr. Schaeuble allegedly had a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday to discuss the negotiations with Greece over the public debt.
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