BRUSSELS, July 21, (WEBNOVINY) — Prime Minister Iveta Radicova has left for an extraordinary summit of euro zone leaders in Brussels. They are coming together to discuss a second bailout package for Greece and the financial stability of the euro area. During the flight, the prime minister told journalists that the situation is serious and that also convening this special summit attests to its urgency. She said that the decision-making on the euro zone is on the agenda of the coming days. However, the position of Slovakia regarding Greece and stabilization mechanisms is clear from the beginning, she underscored. “We have never upheld and will not support moral hazard,” said the prime minister. Slovakia has not changed its position to measures that it decided to back a year ago within the European Financial Stability Facility,” added the prime minister.
New events that have complicated the situation around sovereign debt of some euro zone members over the last weeks forced also Slovakia to formulate new requirements on which it will condition the bailout package provision to any of the problematic countries. “These are known: the private sector and the collateral,’ she said. The form of participation of the private sector will be one of the key topics of the Thursday summit. Regarding Greece prolonging the maturity of its debts or their buyback come into consideration as well.
The priority of euro zone leaders is to prevent the debt crisis from spreading to other countries after a possible default of Athens. Therefore various methods have been considered of solving the Greek debt crisis without causing a collapse on financial markets and giving guarantees to them that the euro zone is strong enough to rescue also further possible applicants for assistance. One of the tabled ideas is to double the first bailout facility to EUR 1,500 billion. Radicova however says that Slovakia would not agree with this proposal. “Boosting the bailout fund would be a bad joke,” she condemned the idea.
SITA