Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

Greek Bailout, PSI Hang in the Balance

Athens News, 16 Feb 2012

by Dimitris Yannopoulos

Coalition party leaders have met the final two demands set by the country's international lenders to seal a bailout, paving the way for a deal and an agreement to ease its debt burden to be announced on Monday, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told fellow eurozone finance ministers on Tuesday.

Venizelos told reporters late on Wednesday that the cabinet had decided how to plug a 325m euro gap in the 3.3bn euros of extra budget savings this year which the EU and IMF are demanding in return for the 130bn euro rescue. However, the teleconference of the 17 eurozone finance ministers failed to dispel lingering doubts over the fate of the second Greek bailout and the private sector involvement (PSI) in a writedown on the country's debt.

The Eurogroup agreed to put off a decision on these issues for its regular meeting in Brussels on February 20, barely a month before a 14.4bn euro bond falls due, risking a Greek default unless a PSI deal has been finalised in the meantime. Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker conceded that Athens had taken the necessary steps to open the way to close the deal worth over 130bn euros, including identifying 325m euros of cuts in its 2012 budget and providing written assurances by its two main political leaders.

"We received the strong assurances provided by the leaders of the two coalition parties in Greece's government," Juncker said in his statement, which followed the Eurogroup teleconference. But Juncker refrained from approving 30bn euros earmarked from the new bailout as a credit sweetener for the launch of the PSI tender to private bondholders who are supposed to write off 50 percent of the face value of their Greek bond portfolios.

Instead, Juncker expressed vague hopes that the appropriate decisions will be taken on February 20 without spelling out the priorities or the certainty that these will be fulfilled on time to avert a disorderly Greek default. "On the basis of the elements that are currently on the table and the above-mentioned additional input, I am confident that the Eurogroup will be able to take all the necessary decisions on Monday, February 20," Juncker said.

However, reports from Brussels suggested that eurozone hardliners at the teleconference had insisted that Athens must ensure that the austerity measures attached to the new bailout will be implemented in full regardless of the results of elections.

According to some reports, these proposals would imply that, either the elections should be indefinitely postponed or certain key economic ministries should be held by "permanent technocratic ministers" along the lines of the Monti government in Italy, appointed and supervised by the troika of Greece's creditors.

I would like to say please stop making the Greek people suffer any more. I think there is a solution that few maybe have thought about.

Let the default happen it will either now or later.

Go back to the drachma and make it 2 drachma to the Euro. Stop all exit of capital out of Greece like China does. Do not let the Drachma be used or exported out of Greece.

Stabilize your wages without killing the Greek people, stabilize the pension funds and get back to normal.

This will keep Greece in the EURO should she still want to be in a union that cares little about anyone except a few strong dictators , but be happy leaving it. Join TPP and similar positions around the World and keep the Greek heads high.

Then look at who is not paying taxes and possibly increase the taxes on the people who make more than US$300,000 per year.

Let the blood stop and do not worry about the debt that has been forced on a Country that does not understand.

Greece optimistic new debt deal to be sealed Monday

ATHENS, Feb. 16, 2012 (Xinhua) --

The Greek government on Thursday expressed optimism that a new debt deal to avoid a chaotic default in March could be sealed at a Eurogroup meeting on Monday.

"We expect to get on Monday the 'green light' so that the Private Sector Involvement (PSI) plan will start," said Greek government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis on Thursday evening, as mounting political pressure by international creditors fuelled new strong reactions by coalition lawmakers and opposition parties.

He stressed that all preconditions for the release of the fresh EU/International Monetary Fund (IMF) 130-billion-euro (170.4 billion U.S. dollars) bailout pact have been met. The pact will clear the way for a parallel bond swap deal with private creditors to ease the country's debt load.

"With good faith, the final decision and announcement will be made on Monday," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said after a Eurogroup teleconference on the issue on Wednesday night.

Greece's European counterparts seem to have been satisfied with the Greek plan to fill in the last million euros in a 3.2-billion-euro worth extra budget savings program for this year.

It appears they were also content with the written statements of the leaders of the two parties backing the interim government that the austerity and reform drive will be fully implemented in exchange of further aid.

The two requests of lenders in combination with the key demand that the Greek parliament should approve the fresh austerity along with the debt deal before the release of new rescue loans were met with annoyance by some officials and MPs in Athens.

But eurozone partners' new requests that the surveillance of the program's implementation should be strengthened and that similar commitments should be made by all parties in the Greek assembly have sparked new reactions.

Citizen's Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis, for instance, denounced a "cruel blackmail against the Greek government and the Greek political system."

Some MPs belonging to the socialist PASOK and conservative New Democracy (ND) parties joined opposition in strong criticism of some European counterparts' "offence to Greek people."

In this climate, interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos held on Thursday afternoon separate meetings with PASOK leader George Papandreou and ND chief Antonis Samaras on the developments, while Venizelos held a round of meetings with opposition party leaders.

Speaking of suggestions by some European partners that polls should be held later to allow time for the transitional government to implement the reforms, Kapsis underlined that it is up to Greece to decide on the subject.

"I have nothing to tell to Mr. Schaeuble. It is absolutely our own issue when we will go to polls," he said. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's statements recently have triggered angry reactions in Greece.

Greece has depended on multi-billion-euro bailout loans since May 2010 to avoid a bankruptcy that could rock the entire eurozone.

Without an agreement on the second aid package and the PSI plan on time, Greece could collapse on March 20, when a 14.5-billion-euro (19.01 billion U.S. dollars) bond falls due. (1 euro = 1.3 U.S. dollars)

Editor: Mu Xuequan