BRATISLAVA, June 15, (WEBNOVINY) — Before it gives the nod to a new bailout for debt-ridden Greece, Slovakia wants to see five conditions fulfilled. Finance Minister Ivan Miklos outlined the concept on Wednesday, following a Cabinet meeting. The first condition is the participation of the private sector in the bailout. As Miklos said, the involvement of the private sector is to ensure that the bill won’t be shouldered exclusively by taxpayers but also by lenders that earned on Greece’s overconsumption.
Slovakia also requires a far-reaching agreement of Greek political parties including the representatives of the opposition to fulfill the country’s commitments. As Miklos continued, Slovakia would also insists on privatization of Greece’s state assets, guarantees that we will not lose our money as well as on the involvement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Miklos says that also Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Slovenia support these conditions.
These terms are supposed to be part of the mandate which the Finance Minister should be granted for the next round of talks. Representatives of the coalition parties at their meeting on Monday agreed that the approval of Slovak legislators is a must.
Euro area finance ministers debated the bailout plan for Greece on Tuesday late into the night in Brussels. As Miklos reported, the meeting failed to achieve a solution. “The standpoints remain different. We are in the group of countries that want the participation of the private sector,” he announced.
The Finance Minister reasons that the participation of the private sector can take various shapes but the final decision will be sensitive. There are reasons to shift the largest possible share of responsibility to the private sector but this solution contains the risks that the crisis will spill into other countries, too.
The amount of the new bailout package for Greece will represent some 120 billion euros. Miklos, however, pointed out that this volume includes proceeds from privatization and the share of the private sector.
SITA