Dutch Finance Minister and chair of the eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem speaks to reporters in the Dutch parliament after a teleconference of the 19 eurozone finance ministers in The Hague, Netherlands on Tuesday, June 30, 2015. Dijsselbloem, says “it would be crazy to extend” the Greek bailout beyond its midnight expiration since Greece won’t accept the European proposals on the table. He said that a Greek request for a new European aid program would be considered later. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
Dutch finance minister and chair of the eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem
The eurozone’s top official says he still wants Greece to stay in the single European currency. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister, also says the Greeks want to keep using the euro. “That is their goal, and still mine,” he said on his way into a Dutch Cabinet meeting yesterday in The Hague. “But we will have to see if it happens.”
Asked if it was still worth talking with the Greeks after the referendum, Dijsselbloem said: “We will see. We are going to see in the coming days if there are still openings. But there are no easy solutions.”
Dijsselbloem added that tough measures are still necessary in Greece. “And if the government and population reject tough measures then we get to a very difficult place,” he said.
Portuguese Socialist party leader Antonio Costa
The Greek referendum result is giving heart to anti-austerity parties in other countries. Portugal’s main opposition Socialist Party, which will bid for power in elections due in three months’ time, says Greece’s troubles show that a new approach is needed to the eurozone’s financial difficulties.
Socialist leader Antonio Costa said austerity policies are “wrong” and endanger European unity. A new focus on growth is needed to rid the eurozone of the deep economic differences between its 19 members, he said.
Like Greece, Portugal got a bailout, when it asked for 78 billion (USD86 billion) in 2011. Spending cuts and tax hikes have reduced its budget deficit but have increased unemployment and reduced living standards.
Portugal’s center-right coalition government, which has staked its reputation on austerity policies to reduce the country’s huge debt burden, made no comment.
Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis
European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis says Greece’s ‘no’ vote “unfortunately widens the gap between Greece and other eurozone countries.” Dombrovskis, who is the executive branch’s top official for the euro, said authorities are “able and willing to defend the financial stability” in the eurozone if it proves necessary in the aftermath of the referendum result.
“We have all the tools necessary to ensure the financial stability of the euro area,” Dombrovskis told reporters in Brussels. He noted that the market reactions “have been quite limited outside the situation on Greece.”
Greek employment minister Rania Antonopoulos
Greece’s employment minister is signaling a conciliatory tone in upcoming talks with European leaders, suggesting that leaving the eurozone would be the worst possible option for the beleaguered country.
Rania Antonopoulos told the BBC that there is still time to get a deal. With Greece’s future hanging in the balance, the country is running out of cash and is at risk of a financial crash.
“There are still 48 hours, there is still this week,” said Antonopoulos. “We will push as much as possible for an outcome, a result of these negotiations that does not obligate Greece to go in that direction.”
Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos
Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said his government is ready to talk about a third Greek bailout. De Guindos told a press conference in Madrid after the government’s economic team met to discuss Greece’s referendum result that everyone wants Greece to “stay in the euro.”
However, he said “the rules for the euro remain the same as they were two days ago.”
“I don’t contemplate in any way Greece leaving the euro,” he said.
The minister conceded the situation now was probably the most complex since the euro launched in 1999 but that the currency’s irreversibility would be reaffirmed at the meeting of eurozone finance ministers today.
Finnish finance minister Alexander Stubb
Finland’s finance minister says Greece will need to conduct extensive reforms no matter what happens next and says that “the ball is now in Greece’s court.” Alexander Stubb said on his website yesterday that’s it up to the Greek government to decide what Sunday’s referendum vote against creditors’ previous proposals means in practice. He stressed that “the instruments and rules for the stabilization of the eurozone remain unchanged.”
Stubb says that the near future will be very difficult for Greece and mending the economy will require extensive reforms. He added that “negotiations can only be resumed when the Greek government is willing to cooperate and commit itself to measures to stabilize the country’s public economy and implement the structural reforms required for debt sustainability.” AP
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