Greeks told: no concessions
Sunday 19 August 2012
Printable
EmailDespite pleas for more time to stabilise Greece's's economy a senior German conservative insisted today that there will be no concessions on its aid programme.
"The Greeks must stick to what they agreed," said Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc.
Greek PM Antonis Samaras will visit Germany and France next week as Europe awaits a report on reforms and austerity measures demanded in exchange for bailout packages.
Mr Kauder said that a Greek bankruptcy would be expensive, "but agreements must be kept."
"There cannot always be new programmes or watered-down conditions," he said.
"The Greeks must at some point answer the question: Do we make even more of an effort or do we leave the euro?"
However, Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs eurozone finance ministers' meetings, argued that Greece won't leave the eurozone, saying an exit wouldn't be politically feasible and would carry unforeseeable risks.
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