EU may give Greece more time to pay debt

Europe showed a willingness yesterday to give Athens more time to pay its debts, but little sign that it would yield to the new Greek government’s demands for debt forgiveness.

European Union leaders and policymakers responded to Greek anti-bailout party Syriza’s election victory on Sunday with warnings that a debt reduction for Greece would be against eurozone rules and would send the wrong message to other members of the single currency.

Before any talks on more time for Greece to repay its debts can start, Athens must get an extension of its existing bailout to give itself time for negotiations on future economic policy and on longer loan maturity with international lenders.

“My forecast is that an extension of the [Greek bailout] programme will have to happen,” Thomas Wieser, who heads the Euro Working Group that prepares decisions of eurozone finance ministers, told Austrian broadcaster ORF.

Eurozone finance ministers are gathering in Brussels to consider how to deal with Greece after the change of government, given the existing €240bn Greek bailout programme expires on February 28.

The euro fell to an 11-year low as Syriza’s victory set Athens on collision course with international lenders and potentially threatened its place in the single currency.

Syriza officials have previously said their government’s first priority would be to ask lenders for a few months of time so both sides can discuss their positions from scratch rather than picking up from where the previous government left off. They resist the idea of extending a bailout programme that they are staunchly opposed to. Mr Tsipras last week dismissed the February 28 deadline when the bailout expires, saying he had until July to negotiate with lenders.

“We are asking for more time, not an extension of the existing programme,” a senior party official said last week.

The extension of the bailout is needed because without it, Athens will not be eligible for the ECB’s plan of government bond purchases. If Greece refuses to service its debt owed to the eurozone, it would not get any more money from eurozone governments and private investors would not lend to it either, officials said.

EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said he did not expect any decisions on Greece from eurozone finance ministers yesterday, just a signal of readiness to engage in talks with the new Greek government.

Even though Syriza won the elections on promises of ending fiscal austerity and demanding debt forgiveness, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin expected it to stick to agreements with its eurozone partners.

* Reuters