Greek FinMin calls for new support program by end of August

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos called European finance ministers to complete all technical details of a new support program for Greece by the end of August and before the release of a sixth tranche of a 110-bln-euro loan agreement, during a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday.
According to sources, the Greek minister urged his Eurogroup counterparts to send to markets a clear message of stability in the Eurozone as the implementation of a lending program was a precondition for the sustainability of the public debt and the sustainability of the public debt was the basis of the program.
Eurogroup sources said the Greek minister acknowledged the difficulty facing several governments to participate in a new lending program to Greece without the participation of the private sector, while he stressed that he also acknowledged the European Central Bank’s role in securing liquidity for Greece and the Greek economy in general.
“Greece is now a laboratory in which Eurozone’s resistance is tested, while the protection of Greece is the self-protection of the Eurozone,” the Greek minister said.
Venizelos reassured of the government’s will to timely implement a program agreed with the troika and briefed the Eurogroup council over the appointment -in cooperation with other political parties- of a board council in newly set-up Privatization Fund.
He also underlined the significance of securing technical assistance from the European Commission and other Eurozone member-states on crucial issues, such as the battle against tax evasion and drafting a new National Tax System.