EUROZONE-GREECE/SCHAEUBLE-SAPIN German, French finmins refuse to give ground on Greek debt crisis

Record ID: 147484

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/SCHAEUBLE-SAPIN German, French finmins refuse to give ground on Greek debt crisis
  • Date: 9th July 2015
  • Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (JULY 9, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER WOLFGANG SCHAEUBLE ARRIVING AND BEING GREETED BY HEAD OF GERMANY'S CENTRAL BANK (BUNDESBANK) JENS WEIDMANN VARIOUS OF FRENCH FINANCE MINISTER MICHEL SAPIN WAITING OUTSIDE VENUE CAMERAMAN SAPIN BEING GREETED BY WEIDMANN SAPIN, WEIDMANN AND JOURNALISTS WALKING INTO BUILDING SAPIN AND SCHAEUBLE HEA
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2WVIYLMVCTQ5OC4J351PNMQJI
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The finance ministers of Germany and France stood firm on the Greek debt crisis on Thursday (July 9), refusing to give ground on debt cuts and urging Greece to win back the trust of the eurozone leaders.
    German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he had urged his Greek counterpart Euclid Tsakalotos, the successor to Yanis Varoufakis, to "just do it" and begin implementing reforms.
    "That would win back a huge amount of trust," he told journalists.
    Athens is due to submit a reform plan meant to convince European partners to give it another loan to save it from a possible exit from the euro.
    Greece has already had two bailouts worth 240 billion euros from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund, but its economy has shrunk by a quarter, unemployment is more than 25 percent and one in two young people is out of work.
    Any leeway to reprofile Greece's debt is small, Schaeuble added, saying however that the IMF was correct in stating that the country's debt was not sustainable without a haircut.
    "The IMF head is right to say that debt sustainability is not feasible without a haircut," he told a conference in Frankfurt, before adding that such a step would be a "a violation of the bail-out ban in European primary legislation".
    Schaeuble said that a reprofiling of debt was another possibility but that leeway to do so was limited.
    "The leeway we have for reprofiling or restructuring is very low," he said, adding that he was 'sceptical' much could be done.
    The hawkish finance minister raised some eyebrows when he joked that he had made U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew the offer of swapping Greece for Puerto Rico, also currently mired in a debt crisis.
    Schaeuble's French counterpart Michel Sapin called on Greece to accept its responsibilities in return for solidarity from the other EU countries.
    "We cannot show solidarity with a country that refuses to accept all its responsibilities. And if a country accepts its responsibilities, it has the right to solidarity," he said.
    Eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels on Saturday (July 11) in an effort to reach a deal with Athens.
    Failure to reach a deal over the weekend, including releasing some money to enable Athens to cover debt service over the next few weeks could lead to a collapse of Greek banks next week.
    If there is no agreement, all 28 European Union leaders will discuss measures to limit the damage from a Greek collapse, including humanitarian aid, possible border controls and steps to mitigate the impact on neighbours, EU officials said.
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