Another Greek debt restructuring is not currently up for discussion, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview to Bloomberg TV.
While some kind of restructuring might be on the agenda in 10 years, “today the issue for Greece is reforming its economy in such a way that it becomes competitive at some point,” Schaeuble noted. Referring to a Die Zeit report that the German government is working on a plan to keep Greece in the euro area even if the country defaulted, he said: “We don’t have such plans, and even if we were working on them -because Ministry staff are taking just about everything into consideration- then we would definitely not talk about it,” Schaeuble said. “It makes no sense to speculate about it.”
He also said that Greek demands for war reparations from Germany are “completely unrealistic.” “This has been ruled so many times by international courts that the revival of this discussion can only lead to raising hopes with the Greek people, which are completely unrealistic,” he stated.
Asked if he plans to meet Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis during his trip in Washington, Schaeuble said that he would “surely” see him the following week in Riga, Latvia, at the April 24 Eurogroup. “He will meet many people and so will I, but perhaps we will meet,” Schaeuble said. “If we meet, we will talk, of course. Sure, no problem.”
(Source: ANA-MPA)
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