Barroso calls on eurozone to stop delaying Greece bailout

Feb 16, 2012, 17:21 GMT

Brussels - Praising Athens' acceptance of 'very demanding' bailout terms, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday called on eurozone governments to stop delaying the bailout for Greece.

'I hope that now eurozone member states will react positively to the commitments taken on by Greece,' he said, hours after the Dutch finance minister commented that the second bailout package could be delayed until after parliamentary elections, scheduled for April.

'(EU) trust in Greece has reached its lowest point,' Jan Kees de Jager told the Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad in an interview published Thursday.

Barroso said in Brussels: 'Although nobody likes the current situation, we have to realize what would be the alternative. The alternative would be a catastrophe for Greece.' He cited a recent poll indicating that 70 per cent of Greeks thought the situation would worsen with a return to the drachma.

Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker announced late Wednesday that Greece had finally delivered the necessary assurances for the bailout and that he expected the package to be approved on Monday.

Time is running out for Greece, which faces a 14.5-billion-euro bond repayment on March 20.

But de Jager said it was 'quite clear that several EU countries, among them the Netherlands ... are not at all satisfied with the promises Athens made last week.'

Before Juncker's announcement, Greece had fulfilled only one of three conditions set by the Eurogroup for a 130-billion-euro (171-billion-dollar) aid package - approval by parliament on Sunday of a 3-billion-euro austerity and economic reform package.

Addressing the rising impatience with Athens' pace of reforms, Guenter Verheugen, a former German EU commissioner, told SWR public radio: 'My instinct tells me you cannot treat a nation as if it consists of criminals, and that this is not about punishing Greece. I am appalled at the tone with which Greece and the Greek package is being discussed at the moment.'

Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Wednesday slammed German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble for 'insulting my country.' Schaeuble has repeatedly criticized Greece, saying it needs to make dramatic reforms, further straining relations between Berlin and Athens.

Papoulias said: 'Who is Mr Schaeuble to insult Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finnish? We were always proud to defend not just our own freedom, not just in our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe.'