Debt restructuring on the table in Brussels
International backers of a second bailout plan to ward off the threat of Greece defaulting on its massive debts are now studying a possible ?rescheduling,? the European Commission said on Friday.
But great care would be taken to avoid sparking alarm on credit markets, it said.
?We have been discussing over the last days a Vienna-style initiative,? said Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, referring to a 2009 deal in which banks agreed to push back deadlines for repayments on loans to Romania.
?And in that context we have also examined the feasibility of a voluntary debt rescheduling or reprofiling, of course on the condition, extremely important, that this would not create a credit event,? he said.
This echoed a warning by European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet of a ?selective default? affecting different creditors, public and private, differently.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged the parliament in Berlin to back additional aid for the heavily indebted eurozone country, adding that private creditor participation in a new package was ?unavoidable.?
Germany?s lower house, the Bundestag, approved a nonbinding resolution supporting extra emergency loans to Greece that calls for bondholders to share the burden.
