Greece's new left-wing finance minister says his government
will not negotiate over the Greek bailout conditions with the
"troika" team from the EU and IMF.
Yanis Varoufakis said he was rather seeking direct talks
with eurozone leaders, to try to cancel more than half of the money Greece
owes.
He was speaking after meeting Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of
the Eurogroup - the eurozone finance ministers.
Mr Dijsselbloem said Greece should stick to its reform
commitments.
He said Greece and the Eurogroup had a "mutual interest
in the further recovery of the Greek economy inside the eurozone" and
warned against Athens acting unilaterally in its efforts to renegotiate its
bailout.
Greece has endured tough budget cuts in return for its
€240bn (£179bn; $270bn) bailout, agreed in 2010 with the "troika" -
the European Commission, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central
Bank (ECB).
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says there was little warmth
between the two men at the news conference, with Mr Dijsselbloem making a
brusque exit.
Breaking with tradition, Mr Varoufakis wore an open-neck
shirt - hanging loose at his belt. Mr Dijsselbloem was dressed conventionally.
On the troika, Mr Varoufakis said "we have no intention
of co-operating with a three-member committee whose goal is to implement a
programme whose logic we consider anti-European.
No comments:
Post a Comment