Brussels won’t ‘change everything’ to please new govt. in Athens
President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has warned Greece’s anti-austerity government that EU is not going to “change everything” to please Athens.
Admitting that “we have to rearrange some of our policies,” Juncker told lawmakers in the European Parliament on Tuesday, “We will not change everything just because there has been an electoral result which pleases some people and displeases others.”
Juncker’s warning comes a day before his meeting with Greece’s new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday.
Tsipras, the leftwing Syriza leader, who overtly rejects spending cuts and austerity measures, seeks to negotiate the new government’s anti-austerity plans during the Wednesday meeting.
“Those who won the elections in Greece ... must also take into account the convictions and methods of others,” said Juncker, adding, “I have already said to him (Tsipras) twice on the telephone that we have to take account of the democratic expression of the Greek people.”
Greece’s anti-austerity mission
Meanwhile, Greece’s government has arranged several meetings with the participation of the newly-elected Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his counterparts from other EU members in an attempt to resolve the debt crisis.
Juncker’s spokesman said on Monday that the Commission will possibly welcome Athens’ call for an end to the bailout Greece received from the “troika” of lenders - the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
However, according to European sources, Finland, the Baltic States and Germany, are some countries at the heart of the 19-nation eurozone which are against Greece’s debt reduction.
The Syriza party has recently taken power in Greece and seeks to renegotiate the terms of Greece’s 315-billion-euro (USD 357 billion) loans that it received in 2010 in return for the enforcement of harsh austerity measures.
The measures have forced people to endure multiple tax increases, along with cuts in pension and salary, in exchange for bailout loans by the country’s creditors.
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