BRUSSELS (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday reiterated
her opposition to a haircut on Greek debt, predicting that Eurozone
finance ministers would find a solution Monday to plug the financing gap
Athens is facing.
Speaking to reporters following the summit meeting of European
heads of state and government here, Merkel played down the failure of
last Monday’s Eurogroup meeting to reach an agreement.
“There is no delay,” she asserted, adding that the lower house of
German parliament “wanted to vote on it next week anyway.” The Bundestag
is expected to vote on approving further aid for fiscally troubled
Greece on November 30.
An agreement on Greece “is being intensively worked on,” Merkel
insisted. Athens has “fulfilled the pre-conditions and thus expectations
are high in Greece.”
The aid “would help growth, and I think…we all understood the
urgency, and it is being worked on with vigor,” she said.
Asked again about her view of a haircut, Merkel said, “We reject
this haircut. We want to find another solution and I think it is quite
feasible but it is not yet there.”
She added that she hoped finance ministers would succeed in
reaching an accord at their gathering on Monday.
–Frankfurt bureau tel: +49-69-720-142. Email: dbarwick@mni-news.com
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