Financial Times
June 22, 2011
Greece’s new finance minister has attempted to renegotiate parts of the austerity deal struck with international lenders last month, drawing anger from his European counterparts as they battle to find a solution to Athens’ debt crisis.
According to officials briefed on the gambit, Evangelos Venizelos proposed changing the €50bn privatisation programme agreed to by Greek authorities and tried to delay next week’s vote in parliament, insisting it could not be done quickly on procedural grounds.
Both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have made the passage of the new €28bn austerity programme the primary condition for releasing a €12bn bail-out payment, which Greece must receive by July 15 to avoid defaulting on its sovereign debt.
Mr Venizelos’s proposal caused particular consternation because policymakers are already deeply concerned over whether Greece will fully implement the agreed programme, which was negotiated over the course of a month with the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank.
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