Spaans voorzitterschap: EU-landen staan klaar om Griekenland te helpen (en)

The Second Vice President of the Spanish government and Minister of Economy and Finance, Elena Salgado, on Sunday played down the importance of apparent fissures within the EU i concerning the Greek financial crisis, expressing her confidence that all countries would support the aid package for this country, which will be accompanied by a tough budget-tightening plan.

In a press conference at the conclusion of the IMF and World Bank Meetings in Washington, Salgado, who was representing the EU, recalled the comments made on Friday by the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn i, who predicted that there would be an agreement with Greece on an aid programme "in early May".

The minister also stated that "there is no resemblance between Greece and Spain". She indicated that the European statistics office, Eurostat i, which this week revised the Greek fiscal deficit upwards, "has confirmed the statistics that we sent down to the last fraction" and that "Spain's level of public debt is 53 % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared with 120 % in Greece's case".