Sunday, July 12, 2015

And Schäuble shake the specter of Grexit – Il Sole 24 Ore

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This entry was posted on July 12, 2015 at 8:11.

FRANKFURT

The hard line of Germany against Greece until the last possible moment for the negotiations was to be expected. Less predictable was that yesterday, at the Eurogroup meeting started, was leaked through the press an internal document of the German Ministry of Finance, indicating among other things as a possible solution to Greece if the exit ‘temporary’ from Athens’ monetary union for five years. Alternatively, the document suggests the creation of a right for the Greek Government should transfer assets to 50 billion euro to repay, with their sale, the debt to international creditors.

The ministry then denied, as have sources of the Greek delegation, the minister Wolfgang Schäuble, or anyone else, has raised the issue of exit from Greece at the Eurogroup meeting. It remains an aggravation of tension between the parties, crafted, as has often happened in recent months, with a leak in the German press more hostile to Athens and, one might say, of the very idea of ​​monetary union. Yesterday it was the turn of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagzeitung”.

The tone of the day, the German side, had been given the same Schäuble when he arrived at the Brussels meeting. “They will be extraordinarily difficult talks,” said the minister, who in recent months has married a tougher stance against Greece than the Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has always claimed to want to avoid the exit from the euro and that it will be up to the ‘last word, but it is reluctant to openly contradict the exponent of greater weight of his cabinet, to prevent fractures in the party and not to accentuate existing among the public.

Schäuble also cited the lack of confidence in Athens and the importance of proceeding with the implementation, step by step, the measures announced by the government greek, which at this point are modeled more or less the demands of creditors, in order to obtain funding. In addition, the minister was against a debt restructuring greek, almost entirely due to official creditors, including European governments, not just cutting the nominal value, entirely unacceptable for Berlin, but also an extension of maturities from 30 at 60, as he had suggested the IMF. Germany would not object to, however, some form of rescheduling, although less extreme doubling both of the repayment period is that of grace IMF indicated in a document published last week on debt sustainability greek.

The suggestion that Greece might leave the euro for five years has made quite a stir, although not the official line of the ministry (which Schäuble already in 2012 was in favor of Athens exit from the monetary union), but the result of a study that follows the ideas of one of the most vehement opponents of the continuation of Greece in the euro, the Bavarian economist Hans-Werner Sinn, president of Ifo institute. One wonders if anything, those having had an interest to circulate the document at this critical stage of negotiations. Surely his publication is not intended to appease the tensions quite evident in recent weeks between the chancellor and her finance minister, that, by adopting a tougher line towards Greece, has recently surpassed in popularity , according to polls.

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