Regionale EU-subsidies voor Griekenland niet in gevaar door overtreding Stabiliteitspact (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Greece's handouts from the EU are not yet in danger despite Athens' budgetary crisis, a spokesman from the European Commission said on Wednesday (29 September).

Brussels has allocated 563 million euro in so-called "cohesion funds" destined for Athens in 2004, of which 189 million euro had been transfered by 1 August.

The Commission spokesman for regional policy had told Reuters news agency, "We might consider the possibility of suspending cohesion funds for Greece as foreseen by the regulations".

However, the spokesman for economic affairs, Gerassimos Thomas said, "The Commission will have to evaluate [the 2005] budget and come back with an assessment in November", adding that fines are often not needed "once a country has taken action to correct its deficit".

The situation in Greece will be discussed by ministers in November.

A new start

Athens appears to be already taking steps to address its budgetary crisis, announcing plans today that will slash its deficit to below the three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) limit in 2005.

Greek finance minister Giorgios Alogoskoufis said that Athens could reduce its deficit to 2.8 percent in 2005 after a dramatic upwards revision to 5.3 percent in 2004.

Revisions were also made to earlier deficit figures after it emerged that Greece had under-estimated the scale of its deficit for the period 2000 - 2003.

"We will cover nothing up and we will embellish nothing", said Mr Alogoskoufis today, according to Handelsblatt.