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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-05-02
CONTENTS
[01] Alternate FM Tsakalotos: Greece should have gotten Feb. 20 Eurogroup
agreement in writing
[01] Alternate FM Tsakalotos: Greece should have gotten Feb. 20 Eurogroup
agreement in writing
ANA-MPA - The Greek government's reliance on a verbal agreement with
the Eurogroup on February 20 that it would get funding was a mistake,
but the mistake is shared by the whole negotiating team and does not lie
with Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis exclusively, Alternate Foreign
Minister for International Economic Relations Minister Euclid Tsakalotos
said in an interview for "Ependyssi" economic newspaper on Saturday.
Tsakalotos, who has taken a central role in the country's negotiations
with its creditors as of last Sunday, when the prime minister formed
the political negotiation team, said that negotiations are taking
place on multiple levels and the finance minister remains the chief
person responsible for the negotiations. He said that "schemes about
Varoufakis being pushed aside have existed for a long time now, they
come from circles hostile to the government and in effect are schemes
to push the whole government aside. They're striking at a key member in
order to essentially strike at the government itself."
The alternate minister insisted that the government "will not introduce
additional recession-producing measures that extend austerity - as for
example raising the VAT rates across the board - we are not going to
introduce pension cuts, we are not going to introduce the deconstruction
of workers' pensions."
Asked whether Greece was looking to borrow from Russia or China, he said
the country's direction has not changed. "We are in Europe and we are
looking for solutions within the European framework," he said. "I do
not see the reason to break that strategic decision, at least not on
our side. I believe that the problem must be resolved within Europe -
anything else will constitute an opportunistic solution to our joint
problem, not a permanent solution."
[File photo, Tsakalotos in Parliament]
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