Berlin demands private investors join new Greek bailout

Jun 1, 2011, 15:03 GMT

Berlin/Singapore - Germany insisted Wednesday that private holders of Greek debt must participate in any new financial rescue package for Athens.

Finance ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus said Berlin had 'strong expectations' that private creditors will join any further assistance programs for Greece, as European officials stepped up the pressure on Athens to agree to a new set of tough economic reforms to head off default.

'If the public sector, as well as taxpayers agree to give the Greeks more breathing space then I think it is clear that private creditors have to join such a project,' Kotthaus told a regular government briefing in Berlin.

But the European Central Bank (ECB) is opposed to forcing private investors to take part in any new rescue plan for Athens arguing that it could damage the Greek banking system.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative-led government has faced resistance to agreeing to any further assistance to the group of heavily indebted European states both from within its own ranks and from the German electorate.

Kotthaus' comments came ahead of a crucial meeting in Vienna Tuesday of the so-called troika consisting of the European Union (EU), the ECB and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is drawing up a report aimed at assessing Greece's progress in knocking its state finances into shape.

Greece is one of three members of the 17-state eurozone to have been forced to tap the special EU-IMF bailout fund created to help them face up to the debt crisis that hit parts of the region early last year.

Analysts believe that Athens now needs an additional 60 to 70 billion euros ((86.5 billion dollars to 101 billion dollars) in 2012-13 when the current EU-IMF financial assistance of 110 billion euros begins to wind down.

The 110-billion-euro rescue package was agreed to on the basis that Athens would press on with a round of tough reforms aimed at cutting back its high deficit-and-debt levels.

But Athens has been criticized for failing to forge ahead convincingly with the reforms, which include moves to sell off state assets totalling 50 billion euros by 2015.

In his comments to reporters, Kotthaus also said Germany was insisting that before any additional aid could be paid to Greece, Athens must agree to a series of measures including a 'very concrete and tangible plan' to privatize state-owned assets.

Kotthaus said the troika report was expected by the end of the week at the earliest. EU leaders see the progress report as a necessary step before further it will agree to make further funds available to Greece.

Speaking on a visit to Singapore, Merkel said Germany would decide whether to give further financial aid to struggling only after the troika had presented their report.

'We will only decide on what to do next after the evaluation of the troika report,' Merkel said.

'The stability of the eurozone is the most important,' she said after a meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

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