Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has toughened his stance on Greek demands for debt relief, saying the country’s new government appeared to be making “impossible” proposals to tackle a looming funding gap.
On the eve of key meetings in Brussels, Mr Noonan complained of rampant tax evasion in Greece and said it was a fallacy to blame its creditors for its plight.“I don’t think the diplomatic démarche by the Greek government was very successful,” he said.
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney did not reflect Dublin’s position when saying Ireland would seek similar measures to any Greek concessions, he said. “The Government hasn’t made a decision to that effect.”
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis will present proposals to an emergency euro zone meeting on Wednesday evening to tackle the funding shortfall arising from the government’s refusal to prolong the current EU-IMF rescue programme, which expires at the end of this month.
These talks will be followed by a gathering of EU leaders tomorrow before more meetings of ministers next Monday and Tuesday at which they will seek a deal to settle the situation.
Echoing other ministers, Mr Noonan said Ireland would not support a debt write-down for Greece. Still, the French banker advising Athens said a €100 billion write-down was needed for an “acceptable” debt level. “An effort is absolutely necessary,” said Matthieu Pigasse of Lazard.
Mr Noonan told the Oireachtas finance committee that he was well-disposed to help but stressed that many difficulties remain. Saying he did not know what Greece was seeking, Mr Noonan also complained that Mr Varourfakis and prime minister Alexis Tsipras had been inconsistent.
“Different things have been said in different capitals by either the Greek prime minister or the Greek finance minister – and then the Greek prime minister went back home and addressed his parliament on Sunday and made a very full speech but everything that was said on Sunday didn’t match the detail of the dialogues in European capitals.”
Solution
After Mr Noonan indicated he was pessimistic about the situation and was asked why, he said he did not yet see the basis for a solution emerging.
“Many of the proposals emanating are, on the face of it, technically impossible,” he said. “I think we’ll know by next Tuesday evening whether it’s going to get worse or get better, but I’m not in the business of predicting which way it will go.”
He was sympathetic to the Greek people’s humanitarian difficulties but said sovereign governments were responsible for their own affairs.
“I know it’s fashionable to put all the blame on the countries which were supplying money to Greece and credit to Greece but there is a problem with the way the programme was implemented in Greece,” he said. “The Greek authorities over a number of years did not take the same actions as the Irish authorities, the Portuguese authorities or the Spanish authorities.”
Tax evasion was not confined to wealthy Greeks, he said. “There’s a whole tranche of people who don’t pay taxes in Greece and they avoid them if they want to.”
EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Athens will have to seek an extension but Mr Varoufakis was defiant. “What percentage of the bailout do we accept?” he said. “Zero per cent.”
