More needs to be done, Clinton tells Skai
Greece has made progress but it still is not where it should be to reassure markets and escape the danger of economic disaster, visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Skai television in an interview to be aired later on Monday.
Speaking to Alexis Papachelas, Clinton rehashed Washington’s support for the structural reforms sanctioned by the debt-ridden country’s foreign lenders, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
?I think it matters what Greece does now,? said Clinton who is in Greece on a two-day visit.
?Half of the package of the measures required has been passed and is being implemented, but the other half has not yet been carried through,? the former first lady said on Skai’s New Folders program.
Clinton’s visit to Greece comes ahead of an emergency eurozone summit on Thursday in Brussels, where the leaders of the 17 countries will discuss a second bailout for Athens.
Meeting with Prime Minister George Papandreou and Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis on Sunday, America’s foreign policy chief welcomed the Socialist government’s unpopular austerity measures, saying they were painful yet beneficial in the long run.
Greece?s plan for public spending cuts and tax hikes was like ?chemotherapy,? Clinton said, but would bring results in the end.
Clinton on Monday also met with conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras. Samaras’s New Democracy party, which leads PASOK in opinion polls, has repeatedly attacked Greece’s bailout agreement with the EU and the IMF.
