EUROZONE-GREECE/FRANCE France to seek deal with Greece before referendum "if possible"- Sapin

Record ID: 148784

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/FRANCE France to seek deal with Greece before referendum "if possible"- Sapin
  • Date: 1st July 2015
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 1, 2015) (REUTERS) FRONT COVER OF DAILY NEWSPAPER "L'OPINION" READING (French): "Grexit provokes division among the Socialist party" FRONT COVER OF DAILY NEWSPAPER "LE MONDE" READING (French) "Greece: Tsipras and the Europeans in fight over referendum"
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ZQSVCJQLF7QNO5M8CRKPW3Z2
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: France will keep pushing for a deal between Athens and the rest of the eurozone before Greece's referendum, France's finance minister Michel Sapin said on Wednesday (July 1), hours before finance ministers from the region hold their second conference call on the crisis in two days.
    Last-minute overtures by Athens to international creditors for financial aid on Tuesday were not enough to save the country from becoming the first developed economy to default on a loan with the International Monetary Fund.
    "The aim is to find an agreement," Michel Sapin told RTL radio.
    "Not necessarily to avoid the referendum. The referendum is a decision of the Greek government, of the Greek parliament, it's not our role to tell from where we are if it's good to organise one or not, if it needs to be cancelled, this is to the Greek government to decide. My role, our role, and especially France's, which maintained the dialogue during all this period of time, is until the last minute to see whether it's possible to find a deal that paves the way for a return to stability in Greece and would reassure Europe," he said.
    "It's obviously terribly complicated. It's complicated in Greece, it's complicated in the relation between partners. There are a lot of partners whose point of views are legitimately different," Sapin added.
    It is unclear how much the Wednesday Eurogroup conference call can achieve.
    Many members are sceptical about Athens' latest offers and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out further negotiations until after the referendum.
    Asked if Germany's tough stance was making it more complicated to find a deal, Sapin said the toughest stance did not come from Germany but from small EU countries which had gone through painful reforms and whose standard of living was lower than Greece's.
    He said that a no vote in Greece would risk causing a Greek exit from the eurozone but added that the door would still not be closed.
    "With a no, there is a risk, and everybody must have this risk in mind, Greeks of course but us too. The risk is to move -- it's not automatic -- but to move towards a Greek exit of the eurozone," he said.
    On the streets of Paris, French people had mixed feelings on the best solution for Greece.
    Alain Lemercier, a computer engineer, said the best for Greece would be to see its debt erased and come out of the eurozone in order to start again with a clean slate.
    "I think we should help them (the Greeks) but I am not sure that it's by remaining in the eurozone that we are going to help them. The best thing for them would be to leave the eurozone but with a cancellation of the debt so that they could start again on a sound basis," he told Reuters Television.
    Pierre Tuloup, another Parisian, said that Europe should not abandon Greece, one of Europe's founding country.
    "It would be a real pity to go to such lengths that would sanction the Greek people. And this lengths, this situation, once again, it's a very personal opinion but I think the Greek government has made things more difficult rather than helping to solve them," Laurent, another Parisian, said.
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