JOURNALIST: ... Stavros Lambrinidis, who is the Greek ForeignMinister; he is on the line now. Good morning to you.
S. LAMBRINIDIS: Good morning.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that, I mean, are we reaching a position now, where people have to be much more honest about what the options are? And is one of those options that there is this really large scale write-off of debt, and that in a way is the thing that we are all looking for, that then allows the other help for Greece to fall into place and to come to fruition?
S. LAMBRINIDIS: No, it isn’t. The options are on the table and they are very efficient if applied. We are at the stage now of applyingthem, as you correctly mentioned before. In other words, Greece has a massive programme of fiscal consolidation and structural reform to apply. It has already been doing so over the past year and by the reports of the Troika and others, largely, extremely successfully. No other country in Europe, or in the world for that matter, has embarked at such huge changes in such a short period of time.
JOURNALIST: But what seems to be the case is that elsewhere in Europe there is a feeling that even though you have done a lot, and I don’t think anyone is suggesting that you haven’t done things and really changed the way in which you approach your economy, but that actually even with all that you have done, it’s not going to be enough.
S. LAMBRINIDIS: You are right and we have to deal with that feeling. A big part of that feeling doesn’t have to do with what Greece does or doesn’t do, but with what is perceived that Europe does or doesn’t do. On the 21st of July, the European Prime Ministers decided that there will be a new package applying to Greece, but also more broadly to the Eurozone, having to do with the extension of the maturities of the loans we get, the reduction of the interest rate, the possibility of the mechanism that we have set in place in Europe to buy bonds in the secondary market, a bunch of things that would give the necessary breathing space for all these difficult changes that Greece and Portugal and Ireland and others are applying, to take effect. Now this, when passed through all European parliaments, would indeed end the discussion about defaults. Now, to the extent that we are giving the impression that we are delaying this, there is no question that those who wish to see in the picture, more of the bleak aspect of it, would be able to continue doing so. The big danger is of course that there is always a possibility of self-fulfilling prophecies here. The economy is psychology and indeed the fears that you are describing, and to the extent that they keep being described throughout the world, in articles and analyses and what have you, can be problematic. Now Europe does have the medicine for all this. What it needs to do is apply it in the same way that Greece needs to keep applying very strictly and very forcefully the measures that it needs to apply to change its economy.
JOURNALIST: Alright, Stavros Lambrinidis. Thank you very much for talking to us this morning.
October 5, 2011