Greece presents an ultimatum to EU
Posted by adminAthens loses patience. Having established an austerity plan unprecedented more than 10 billion euros to reduce its deficits, the Greek government requested that the European Union to turn goodwill. Prime Minister Georges Papandreou requested Thursday that European leaders to reach agreement at the summit next week on a mechanism to help Greece.
The head of government, speaking before the European Parliament in Brussels, was also skeptical about the suggestion by Angela Merkel, to be able to exclude a country from the euro area. "Just punishment could not be the solution. And punish and exclude a country would be a failure not only for the country (excluded) but also for the Union "Money as a whole, he said.
Besides the penalties, "the important thing is that we must ensure that countries that have problems are also supported," he said. On this point, George Papandreou reiterated that his country "does not claim to help": "We are not asking for money from Germans, French, Italians, and other workers or taxpayers."
"What we are saying is that we need strong political support to enable us to make necessary reforms and ensure that we will not pay more than necessary to implement these reforms, he explained to MEPs, before threatening again to resort to IMF assistance. This last possibility is rejected by the European Central Bank and by France and Germany.
See also:
"SPECIAL – Greece, a challenge for Europe