Ideeën rond versoepeling terugbetaling Griekse leningen 'verzinsel van media' (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has said there are no ongoing discussions to permit an extension to paying back Greece's €110 billion loan after the Greek finance minister had earlier mooted the idea.
A spokesman for the EU executive on Tuesday dismissed the reports as media flutter, although one Greek economist suggests that the debate is in reality about Brussels, the IMF and Athens preparing the ground - via a debate in the press - for debt restructuring.
"There is no discussion as such and I think even the Greek finance minister has said that there hasn't been such a request. It seems to be a debate through the media about an eventuality that is not on the table," commission economics spokesman Amadeu Tardio told reporters on Tuesday, responding to reports that Athens was considering such a move.
"There are no concrete plans to envisage this," he stressed, adding that there was no need for any delay to repayments in any case as the situation in Greece, in particular the spreads on its bonds, had seen a "remarkable" improvement.
"On the contrary, in the last few days and weeks, there has been a clear improvement in investor sentiment."
The urgent clarification on the part of the EU executive came after the Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou told Greek television on Monday night that his country was considering the idea due to a leap in the scale of payments envisaged in four years' time.
"This discussion has started because everybody sees that for two specific years - 2014 and 2015 - the state goes suddenly from paying off €40bn to €50bn a year to €70bn," he told Skai TV.
Mr Papaconstantinou's statement followed sympathetic comments along the same lines from International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn i, who said on Sunday that the repayment period for the loans could be extended if there was agreement to this effect by European governments.
However, both the IMF and the Greek minister said that no decision had yet been taken.
"It is an ongoing discussion, there is no decision but this is completely different from the issue of restructuring of the Greek debt," he said.
Berlin meanwhile was quick to dismiss the idea, with the German Finance Ministry spokesman Michael Offer telling reporters on Monday that the rules Greece should abide by the rules set out in the loan memorandum by the European Central Bank (ECB i), the commission and the IMF.
'New phase of crisis'
Costas Lipavitsas, a Greek economist at the University of London meanwhile believes that the spin coming from Berlin, Brussels and Washington is actually an indication that the Greek government and the IMF are beginning to feel more confident that the austerity shock measures are working.
"This is basically signalling a new phase of the crisis. They believe that they are meeting success in stabilising the deficit. The recession is still unfolding and is pretty serious, but the government believes that this is looking like it will be within what the IMF expects for this year," he told EUobserver.
He also said that a second crucial factor behind the comments is that the IMF and Greece have managed to push through the programme without stirring massive popular opposition to the extent that was originally feared.
"There has been discontent, to be sure, but not in an organised or decisive fashion that could threaten the political situation."
"So they think they can breathe a bit and begin to talk about debt restructuring, which is actually completely necessary. No one ever really expected back in May [when the loans were agreed] even in the best of circumstances that Greece would be able to handle the scale of repayments," he continued.
"And the cheapest, easiest way to do this is via a delay in payments. And so they are actually beginning this process in dribs and drabs via the press."
He warned however that the confidence could be misplaced.
"They could yet be wrong on either of these two key points: the recession could yet be more complicated and protracted than expected and the anger could also actually turn out to be a lot more vicious than we have seen so far. So this could be premature."