Difficult search for the settlement of the debt dispute – www.dw.de

Difficult search for the settlement of the debt dispute – www.dw.de

“We call the ‘troika’ out of respect for our Greek friends recently no longer ‘troika’, but: ‘Institutions’,” the spokesman of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in Berlin, confirming that in crisis talks with Greece the taboo in Athens term ‘troika’ of European Union, European Central Bank will ECB and International Monetary Fund IMF no longer used

Some call it misnomer – but it seems to work. In Brussels arrived on Friday representatives of the three institutions Greek government experts. Earlier, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had many politicians in the EU snubbed by he had repeatedly stated that cooperation with the troika for finished and asked for a haircut. When
 
 EU summit on Thursday moved Tsipras However, this attitude from and closed negotiations with donors are no longer categorically.

debt relief or “waterboarding”?

a debt, the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis now brought back into play. In an article published on Friday interview with the news magazine “Der Spiegel” Varoufakis said he understood that the federal government wanted to avoid the word “debt haircut”: “In fact, would be such a better and at the end of the creditor even cheaper than an extension of credit. ” Everyone knows that Greece’s current debt burden without a new contract never be able to wear. The actions of the Troika remember the torture waterboarding, Varoufakis said. “Just before the cardiac arrest will allow us to take a few breaths. Then you push us back under water, and everything goes from front to go,” Varoufakis said in the interview.

The new left-right government in Athens will tilt 30 percent of the negotiated with the Troika austerity program. Instead of further pension cuts and tax increases for low-income Tsipras’s Finance Minister Giani Varoufakis want to combat tax evasion and ask the wealthy Greeks to the checkout. In addition, the corruption will be curbed dramatically

Sky High ambitions and shrinking GDP

The encounters within the EU not to completely deaf ears – but with skepticism. EU -Kommissionschef Jean-Claude Juncker said, “On this basis, we will try to reach an agreement in the coming days.” He warned against excessive euphoria. “I remain worried.” Similarly Euro group chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said:. “The Greeks have sky-high ambitions But the possibilities of the economy in the country are very limited,” he said in the Dutch broadcasting. That’s why he was pessimistic that it a
 
 will come quick agreement with Greece.

While Greece’s economy grew by six years of recession 2014, again easily. At the end there was however a damper. GDP contracted according to the Greek Statistical Office Elstat October-December to 0.2 percent the previous quarter.

On Monday, the euro zone finance ministers enter negotiations on the financial future of the debt-ridden country. It is maintained by its euro partners and the IMF since 2010 with a total of 240 billion euros before the national bankruptcy. Time is short, because the bailout program expires at the end of the month of. And without further cash injections could go bankrupt Greece, according to experts. An
 
 Insolvency would also be accompanied by billions in losses for the other euro countries.

mm / uh (dpa, afp rtr, SPON)