NEWS

Troika to return to Athens in September

Troika officials, who continued their inspection in Athens on Wednesday, will return to Greece in September to complete their review, a European Commission spokesman said Wednesday, as more officials suggested that the country will need further assistance.

?The troika will travel again to Athens in September and only then will it prepare a final assessment on the implementation of the program. Before then it is too early to draw any conclusions,? spokesman Antoine Colombani said in response to a question from Kathimerini?s Brussels correspondent Nikos Chrysoloras about whether a restructuring of official sector debt is being considered.

Colombani added that solutions for the payment of the 3.2-billion-euro Greek bond that matures next month and which is held by the European Central Bank are still being sought. ?The assessment of the short-term liquidity needs of Greece and the technical solutions that will be found are being discussed.?

European Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia, meanwhile, told Dow Jones Newswires that Greece?s European partners would have to be prepared to give Athens ?more cash.? ?They have huge problems that need to be tackled and they should be at the forefront of their own solutions,? he said.

?But they cannot solve their… problems alone. If they do what they have committed to do, then the EU institutions and the other members of the EU should support Greece.?

In Germany, Norbert Barthle, the parliamentary budget spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel?s Christian Democratic Union, suggested that Greece may need a second debt restructuring. ?We should try to keep Greece in the eurozone,? he told Bloomberg. ?Of course we have to think what action might be needed if the worst comes to the worst,? he said. ?But it will cost us a lot of money.?

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