Germany Merkel:To Wait For Greece Report Before Any Decisions
By Market News International || May 10, 2011 at 10:15 GMT
BERLIN (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that no
further decisions can be made regarding the Greek financial crisis until
the report of the EU Commission, the ECB and the IMF on the state of
Greece is released.
“We can draw conclusions only when we know the results” of the
report, Merkel said at a briefing for foreign journalists here. Only
then “will we decide if and what is to be done,” she stressed.
Merkel acknowledged that implementing the austerity and reform
program not “easy” for Greece. “Yet, at the end of the road there will
be a stronger Greece,” she reckoned.
Asked if the Finnish anti-European party “True Finns,” which is to
be part of the new government in Finland, could block financial aid for
Portugal, Merkel said she trusted that Finland would in the future
continue to fulfill its commitments in the EU.
Commenting on the future permanent EU financial rescue fund, Merkel said she was “very convinced” there would be a supportive majority in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to be established in mid-2013.
Merkel declined to say whether Germany would back Bank of Italy
Governor Mario Draghi as successor to outgoing ECB President Jean-Claude
Trichet, explaining that there was nothing new to say on the matter.
Germany will make its decision on the ECB succession “in time,” the
Chancellor explained. “That we haven’t decided yet is not directed
against anybody.”