Papademos: Bailout letters are necessary - The Best from Greece

The prime minister said today that he will push party leaders for the written guarantees that eurozone leaders have requested that they agree to implement the decisions of October 27.

 

"This letter by the leaders of the parties supporting the government, as has been requested by the Eurogroup and the IMF ... is necessary in order to eliminate uncertainties and ambiguities concerning actions to be taken in the future, by parties that may be in power," Lucas Papademos said in Brussels on Monday.

 

Party leaders must send the requested written confirmations because the country's creditors need reassurance that the government will stick to reforms after the next elections, he added.

 

"But it's up to the leaders of the relevant parties to decide how this confirmation of the commitment will be made," he added.

 

Papademos was speaking after a meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and before a meeting with European Council leader Herman Van Rompuy.

 

Earlier, European Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly had underlined that written commitment is a precondition for the disbursement of the sixth tranche and expressed guarded optimism that the Greek authorities will provide the necessary commitments as soon as possible.

 

Papademos said eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund pledged to finance Greece for a long time, much longer than the expected life of his government, and needed commitment from Greece for the corresponding period.

 

The prime minister, however, also noted that the political party leaders in Greece, through their vote of confidence in the new government, "had honoured the government and their longterm commitments".

 

The demand that political party leaders provide written commitments was also reiterated on Monday in Brussels by the spokesman of the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn.

 

During a scheduled press briefing, Amadeu Altafaj underlined that the goal of the written undertakings is to assure the Eurozone member states that Greece will adhere to its commitments regardless of developments in the coming weeks or months related with the imminent elections.

 

Altafaj stressed that Greece depends on the international economic assistance it receives and underlined that the sixth tranche of the aid will have be disbursed before the end of December for the country to meet its needs.

 

However, New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras is refusing to provide such a written commitment, saying his vote in parliament is commitment enough. (AMNA, Reuters)