EUROZONE-GREECE/SCHAEUBLE PRESSER Germany's Schaeuble welcomes agreement on Greece

Record ID: 143981

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/SCHAEUBLE PRESSER Germany's Schaeuble welcomes agreement on Greece
  • Date: 15th August 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) CAMERAMAN WITH SCHAEUBLE PRESSER IN BACKGROUND
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1259MWBQJ1YL3X4B7K1BXJ4T2
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has welcomed the bail-out agreement for Greece and said that it is a "chance that must be used" and called the meeting "a good day".
    "It is a chance. And therefore I think it is a good day," he told journalists on Friday (August 14) after the finance ministers from the eurozone gave their final blessing to lending Greece up to 85.5 billion euros after the parliament in Athens agreed to stiff conditions overnight.
    "Now we will work on convincing the public in our member states about the correctness of that decision, and get the necessary parliamentary approval," he added.
    Schaeuble, long the most powerful sceptic over the merits of giving Greece a third bailout to keep it in the EU's common currency area, said that the decision to grant Greece the third bailout was mostly due to a change in attitude.
    "Everybody who has been engaged in that issue has said that the situation has completely changed compared to the debates we had in the first couple of months, in June, until the middle of July," said Schaeuble. "It seems that Greece tries to steer the country on a path to meet its economic requirements and interests, as Mr Tsipras said today. And insofar, we were all in agreement in the Eurogroup that we must take this opportunity."
    Asked what he thinks has triggered the change, Schaeuble was very clear about his opinion.
    "Well, there was a change in the position of the finance minister. You wouldn't believe, but sometimes the person of a finance minister is not totally irrelevant," he said.
    However, some issues still need to be ironed out following a deal struck with Greece on Tuesday by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
    Among these are how to deliver some 25 billion euros ($27.8 billion) in new capital to Greek banks and keeping the IMF involved in overseeing the new eurozone programme while delaying satisfying IMF calls for debt relief for Greece until a review in October.
    After defeating conservatives in January, Tsipras remains hugely popular for standing up to Germany's insistence on austerity before capitulating to new bailout terms under the threat of a eurozone exit. He would be expected to win again if snap polls were held now, given an opposition in disarray.
    The Washington-based IMF, which has lent to Greece itself and played a role in supervising the implementation of two previous bailouts worth a total of 240 billion euros, has urged the other 18 states of the eurozone to give Athens debt relief in order to help revive its crippled economy.
    IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde phoned in to the Eurogroup meeting, eurozone officials said, and endorsed the outline deal. Many eurozone governments have ruled out any "haircut" on the nominal amount of debt - something against current eurozone rules - and have questioned the IMF assessment of how much relief Greece needs, saying it is too pessimistic.
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