On her flight to Brussels to the extraordinary summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels on July 21 to discuss a second bailout package for Greece and the financial stability of the euro area, Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová shared her opinions with journalists, the SITA newswire reported.
During the flight, the prime minister told journalists that the situation is serious and that the convening of the special summit proves its urgency. She said making decisions regarding the eurozone is the most important issue on the agenda and added that the position of Slovakia regarding Greece and stabilisation mechanisms has been clear from the beginning.
“We have never upheld and will not support moral hazard," she said, as quoted by SITA. “Slovakia has not changed its position to measures that it decided to back a year ago within the European Financial Stability Facility," the prime minister added.
New events that have complicated the situation around the sovereign debt of some eurozone members over the last weeks have forced Slovakia to specify new requirements on which it will condition a bailout package to any of the problematic countries. "These are known: the private sector and the collateral,” the prime minister said.
European leaders will not only decide on a second loan to Greece, but also more broadly on how to halt the debt crisis and its effects on other countries that already have their hands full consolidating public finances after the recent economic crisis, Radičová told the TASR newswire, adding that this is why Slovakia will support any measures that can prevent debt infection.
The prime minister said governments now have to take unpopular measures to tackle the effects of bad decisions made by irresponsible politicians, banks and rating agencies in the past. In this connection, Radičová noted that rating agencies had been reporting for years that Greece was one of the most advanced countries when it was actually on the brink of bankruptcy.
Source: SITA, TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
