EU geeft Griekenland een maand voor eerste resultaten herstelprogramma (en)

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg and Eurogroup i President, Jean-Claude Juncker i, next to the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn i, during a press conference at the close of a ministers’ meeting in Brussels on 15 February, 2010. EFE

The 16 countries of the Eurozone i have set Greece a one-month deadline to show the first results of its public finances plan. If the situation is not satisfactory "additional measures" will have to be taken.

The President of the Euro Group, Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking after the monthly meeting of the 16 Eurozone finance ministers, said the agreed sequence of events will be as follows:

On 16 March, the Greek Government is to send the European Commission and the European Central Bank a report about progress made this month. Greece has pledged to reduce its budget deficit by 4% of GDP in 2010, from 12.75% to 8.70%, and to cut it still further to below 3% in 2012, in line with the European Stability and Growth Pact.

If the EU executive body and the ECB i consider that the country has not made sufficient progress, they will start talks on imposing additional measures on the Greek Government and will make a formal proposal, which will be submitted to the Euro Group.

At this point, the finance ministers of the Eurozone would be able to impose additional public finance consolidation measures on the Greek Government, which would be done by a qualified majority vote with Greece barred from participating.

If nevertheless Greece continues to be battered by the markets, “the members of the Eurozone are committed to taking decisive and coordinated measures to preserve financial stability throughout the Eurozone", Juncker stressed.

Juncker also welcomed the new Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Finland's Olli Rehn, who takes over from Spain's Joaquín Almunia.

Rehn pledged to present a proposal within the next few months for increasing coordination between economic policies within the Economic and Monetary Union, with the aim of reducing inequalities in macroeconomic aspects and competitiveness between Member States, which have led to situations such as that of Greece.