Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in Slovakia today amid concern that Greece is not doing enough to satisfy the conditions of its most recent bailout.
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“There’s no doubt we’ve lost time”, said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who led the meeting of his euro-area counterparts.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, French President Francois Hollande, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and Spanish State Secretary for the European Union Fernando Eguidazu (L-R) pose for a group photo during the Mediterranean European Union (EU) Countries’ Summit in Athens, Greece, Sept. 9, 2016. So far, the country has managed to implement only two out of 15 reforms agreed with its worldwide creditors.
Under a deal signed past year with euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Greece can receive financial assistance of up to 86 billion euros by 2018 in return for agreed reforms.
Meanwhile, a conservative lawmaker back in Germany, Manfred Weber, called on Athens to deliver on promised reforms under its third bailout. On his part, Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said Greece had done a lot, but more was needed. But EU officials suggest they are prepared for delays. But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Greece still had time to complete its work, saying Athens has in the past come through on required measures at the wire.
The Greek government has made some progress in reshaping the country’s economy over the past six years but it’s still encumbered by a heavy debt burden which is more than 175 percent of national income.
Yet another German politician also spoke up about the “Club Med” meeting, saying he was anxious the southern countries could form a “coalition of redistributors” that would put the EU’s financial stability at risk.
Both Apple and Ireland, the location of Apple’s European headquarters, are appealing the ruling, but Pierre Moscovici, the EU’s economy commissioner, defended the move saying Europeans “are waiting for multinational corporations to pay their taxes as common people do”.
“It is important. (that) when the populists hope that Europe is going to fall apart that we should send out a message of unity and cohesion”, said Hollande.
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Tsipras, an anti-austerity champion who says the fiscal straitjacket favoured by Germany will never permit weak economies such as Greece’s to recover, is also trying to swing more European Union states to his vision. He indicated, however, that the ministers were not particularly concerned about those nations’ efforts to improve economic fundamentals would falter.
