Juncker sees solution to Greek problem by end of June
Luxembourg?s Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads the group of euro-area finance ministers, said a ?definitive answer? to Greece?s debt crisis should be reached by the end of next month.
?We will try to solve the Greek problem by the end of June,? Juncker told reporters in Paris late on Monday.
The assessment by a team of officials from the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank ?will partly determine our position? on Greece, he said.
?We are waiting for their final judgement, their position that will partly determine our position,? Juncker said. ?So it?s too early before receiving their report early next week to bring a definitive answer. I am rather optimistic.?
?The problem of the private-sector involvement will be examined with all the attention required,? Juncker said. ?The total restructuring of the Greek debt is not an option and isn?t envisaged by anyone.?
Sarkozy said Friday the burden of Greece’s crisis can be shared with the private sector, without restructuring its debt or endangering the credibility of the single currency block.
But the French President did not explain what that solution might involve. «There are formulae and there is no problem» to involve the private sector, Sarkozy said at the Group of eight leading economies summit in Deauville Friday. «And it’s in this direction that everyone should converge.”
Markets have been nervous over the last week as they try to guess to what degree if at all Greece’s debt mountain will be restructured.
