FRANKFURT (MNI) – Eurozone authorities are preparing a broad,
multiple-nation bailout package including a modified program for Greece,
a second bailout for Spain and a first program for Cyprus, Germany’s
Financial Times Deutschland reported over the weekend, citing Eurozone
sources.
Fresh support measures for the three countries could be negotiated
and presented to national parliaments as a package by November at the
latest, the newspaper reported.
A joint package is aimed at breaking resistance against additional
concessions to Greece – particularly among German parliamentarians – by
presenting a broad solution that could represent a breakthrough in the
debt crisis, the paper said.
Initially, decisions were scheduled to be taken in October.
According to the report, however, Berlin is putting the brakes on
closing aid-related deal at the next EU summit in mid-October.
Inspectors from the International Monetary Found, the European
Central Bank and the European Commission – the so-called “Troika” – will
not have concluded their report on Greece by the next Eurozone finance
ministers’ meeting on October 8, the paper said.
According to a separate report in Der Spiegel Sunday, preliminary
findings from the Troika show that Greece’s budget shortfall amounts to
around E20 billion, almost the double of previous estimates.
However, a Greek Finance Ministry official in Athens said the gap
was E13.5 billion, and that it would be bridged with E11.5 billion in
spending cuts and E2 billion in new revenues.
–Frankfurt newsroom +49 69 72 01 42; e-mail jtreeck@mni-news.com
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