–Adds Comments On French Reaction From German Newspaper
FRANKFURT (MNI) – Germany is setting tough preconditions for any
rescue package for Greece, including IMF involvement and stricter
deficit and debt rules in the Eurozone ahead, the Financial Times
reported Tuesday, citing a senior German government source.
In any event, no agreement on a specific rescue package would be
reached at this week’s EU summit, the newspaper was told.
Help could be granted only after Greece had exhausted its capacity
to raise money on the international capital markets, the IMF had agreed
to make a “substantial contribution” to a rescue package, and the EU
members had agreed to negotiate new rules to prevent a reoccurrence of
such a debt crisis, the Financial Times wrote.
“We must draw the consequences for the future, with the goal of
agreeing more effective sanctions and prevention measures against
excessive indebtedness, [even if] that should include a treaty change,”
the source told the newspaper.
German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said French government sources
confirmed that German Chancellor Angelika Merkel had convinced her
French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that the IMF may have to be involved
in any rescue operation.
An IMF loan “is not longer excluded,” the sources told the
newspaper.
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$]