Euro Zone Gives Up Greece

Euro Zone Gives Up Greece

Euro zone finance ministers revealed on Saturday that they could not go ahead with an agreed deal with Greece to restructure debt until it guaranteed that it would implement reforms needed to secure a second financing package from the euro zone and the IMF.

Euro zone ministers had expected to have a meeting on Monday to finalize the second Greek bailout, which is supposed to happen by mid-March. But the meeting was postponed due to Greek’s reluctance to commit for reforms.

Instead, the finance ministers held a consultation meeting on Saturday to examine the progress on the second financing package, which euro zone leaders set at 130 billion euros back in October.

"There was a very clear message that was conveyed from all participants of the teleconference to the Greeks that enough is enough," one euro zone official said. "There is a great sense of frustration that they are dragging their feet.”

"They should get their act together and start talking honestly, decisively and speedily with the Troika on the aspects of the program that remains to be finalized - on fiscal and labor market reforms," the official said.

The Troika is a committee of the representatives of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank, who prepared a Greek debt sustainability analysis on which the second financing program will be based.

One euro zone official said that the main issue is the lack of reform, or prior action, on the part of Greece.

Euro zone ministers were also displeased with Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos because they believed the minister was paying more attention to his position within his party ahead of the April elections, rather than talks about reforms.

Posted by James Fried on Monday February 06 2012, 4:41 AM EDT. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0