After the Spanish one, the Greek siren plays again. A new alarm on the sustainability of the Greek debt comes today from the German press. According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, which cites unidentified EU "official sources", the International Monetary Fund would be willing to block aid to Greece. Athens would not be able to reduce its debt to 120% of GDP by 2020 and keep its commitments on reforms. This would mean a further disbursement of aid of 10-50 billion for the countries of the Eurozone. And no one would be willing to spend more than expected. Thus returns the specter of default, which could arrive as early as September.
THEFor the moment, the EU is not going too far. Simon O'Connor, spokesman for Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, did not comment, limiting himself to saying that he "doesn't know where Spiegel's information comes from" and recalling that only tomorrow the new troika mission to Greece will start. The technicians of the EU, the IMF and the ECB will analyze the economic program of the new Greek government and their report will be decisive for the approval of the new 31,5 billion euro loan scheduled for September.
From Berlin though the economy minister, Philipp Roesler, said he was "more than sceptical" about the possibility that Athens respects the commitments. "If Greece does not meet the required requirements - continued the minister -, there will be no more resources for the country". Words that have inevitably aggravated the tensions on the markets.
More cautious the German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, who limited himself to launching a warning in an interview with Bild: “If there are delays – he said -, Greece must resolve them”. But the conservative minister then refused to make predictions about whether or not Athens would remain in the euro zone: “I don't want to precede the troika. When his report is ready, the Eurogroup will meet”.
Schaeuble also said he sees no parallels between the situation in Greece and Spain, for which the Eurogroup on Friday approved a 100 billion euro banking sector aid plan: "The causes of the crisis in the two countries are different – explained the German minister -. The Spanish economy is much more competitive and has a different structure. The country will recover quickly."
Another partial reassurance came yesterday from president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, who called the euro "irreversible" and denied the danger of "an explosion". However, the Italian banker also underlined that the Eurotower does not have the mandate to solve the financial problems of the states.
