World

Greek debt crisis: Germany 'may consider' debt relief

July 19, 2015 6:12 pm

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is prepared to consider further debt concessions to Greece once its latest economic reforms are worked out.

In a television interview, she said she was open to discussing reduced interest rates and extended maturity dates.

But Mrs Merkel said this would happen only after details of the latest bailout had been agreed, and reiterated that there would be no debt write-off.

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Meanwhile France’s president called for the creation of a eurozone government.

Reviving an idea originally put forward by former European Commission chief Jacques Delors, Francois Hollande proposed “a specific budget as well as a parliament to ensure democratic control” of the eurozone.

“What threatens us is not an excess of Europe but its insufficiency,” Mr Hollande wrote in a French newspaper.

The 19 countries that use the euro are members of an informal body, the Eurogroup, made up of each country’s finance minister.

The complex negotiations earlier this month over whether to grant Greece a third bailout exposed vastly different points of view between the various eurozone members.
‘Not now, but then’

Germany, which is the largest contributor to Greek rescue funds, has taken a tough line on Greece.

Both Greece and one of its key creditors, the International Monetary Fund, have been arguing for a restructuring of its €320bn debt, saying its current position is “unsustainable”.