Venizelos calls on partners, creditors not to use Greece as ‘alibi’
PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos on Wednesday called on the country’s partners and creditors to refrain from using Greece as an «alibi» in the face a broader European crisis, reiterating that the cash-strapped country had «repeatedly taken tough decisions.”
Venizelos’s comments came in the aftermath of an Eurogroup and International Monetary Fund meeting focusing on Greece which ended inconclusively in the early hours of Wednesday. A new meeting has been scheduled for Monday.
Venizelos added that the issue of the Greek debt’s sustainability had been raised before and had led to tough and lengthy negotiation back in February.
“Disagreement between the eurozone and the IMF is nothing new either,» added Venizelos, who commented that the two sides should have reached a decision in order to faciliate a summit meeting regarding the EU’s budget taking place on Thursday.
The issue of the debt’s sustainability needs to be finalized within the next few days, said Venizelos, not only because Greece «needs and deserves a new starting point» but also because the eurozone was in urgent need of developing a framework of self-protection and perspective.
