GREECE “CANNOT have its cake and eat it” by accepting EU financing without the conditions, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has said.
Officials in Berlin yesterday played down promises of “additional growth measures” made by French president François Hollande on his inaugural visit to the German capital on Wednesday evening.
“Greece can be helped but it has to be in a position to accept help,” said Mr Schäuble told German radio yesterday. The June election, the second in a month, was a chance for Greeks to show they accepted the conditions attached to the aid programme by choosing a government that did the same.
“There is no easy way to solve Greece’s problems,” he said. “You can’t have your cake and eat it, as they say in English. Greece has to decide and we will accept the result.” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman declined to confirm or deny reports that she complained to her Austrian counterpart Werner Faymann about his finance minister, Maria Fekter.
Austrian tabloid Österreich reported that Ms Fekter, on the sidelines of a finance meeting in Brussels, said ongoing uncertainty in Greece could see it exit the EU.
Ms Fekter later said she was pointing out that EU law did not allow for an exit from the euro zone, only a complete exit from the bloc.
German officials refused to comment on what measures could be offered to assist Greece ahead of next month’s election.
Steffen Seibert, Dr Merkel’s spokesman, said French and German officials would work together and then put their respective proposals on the table at the May 23rd informal summit. “As a getting-to-know-you meeting it [the Merkel-Hollande meeting] was a good start, but it was not a meeting where topics were discussed into every last detail.”
Mr Seibert played down Mr Hollande’s mention of “eurobonds” – pooled sovereign debt among euro zone members – during yesterday evening’s press conference, saying “it was neither mentioned before or after the press conference”.
“Only the topic of project bonds was mentioned,” he said, referring to a proposal to raise private sector investment for large public projects, such as infrastructure, backed with state guarantees.
German government officials insisted they would not back any fresh borrowing, and said help would be free and of a technical nature, such as helping building administrative capacity in Greek government ministries to help draw down EU structural funds.
“Bilateral technical assistance is not to be underestimated,” said one Berlin official.
