Juncker, Eurogroup wants to keep Greece in euro

Europe is united and wants to keep Greece in the Eurozone, said Eurogroup president Jean Claude Juncker after yesterday's meeting of finance ministers of the 17 countries that have already adopted the euro. ''We want to keep Greece in the euro and we'll do all we can to make it so,'' said Juncker. ''We have not discussed the option of Greece leaving the eurozone, nobody has mentioned it." EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn also talked about Greece, turning to Greek politicians: ''Now more than ever,'' he said, ''it is their responsibility to play their part and respect the solidarity pact closed with the EU." Because solidarity, he explained, is a commitment that works if both parties respect the agreements. Today ''all 16 eurozone countries have expressed their solidarity with Greece." Juncker guaranteed that another 1-billion euro aid tranche will be allocated to Greece by June, and spoke out against those who speculated in the past days that Greece may have to leave the eurozone to put pressure on the country. Talking about that ''makes no sense, it is mere propaganda, I am against this way of treating the Greeks. They have voted, we'll wait for the formation of a new government and then we'll talk with them. I don't like this way of threatening Greece this way." Regarding the option of giving Greece more time to implement the restructuring programme and reforms agreed with the EU, Juncker said: "if there were to be dramatic changes in the circumstances, we wouldn't preclude a debate about an extension of the period. But it wasn't discussed today and the question is not on the agenda." According to the Eurogroup president, the time has come to discuss how to re-launch growth on EU level. ''We will discuss the issue in depth in the coming two weeks,'' he said, without mentioning the proposal made by Italian Premier Monti to exclude investments in production from the debt calculation. The proposal is an indirect response to the White House, which pointed out that ''more must be done'' after recognising that Europe has already made significant progress. The Eurogroup has responded positively to Spain's measures to solve its national banking crisis. Spain was urged to speed up the external verification of its banking assets, announced by the council of ministers on Friday. But Juncker said that he is certain ''Spain will do all it can'' to restructure its banking sector, cut the deficit and start growing again." Today, waiting for the result of the meeting between the new French president, Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU finance ministers will meet once again in Ecofin formation to discuss the application of Basel 3 rules and the possibility of negotiating an agreement with Switzerland to fight tax evasion. The finance ministers will be hoping that the markets will turn around after a bad day, in which all stock markets plunged, spreads with the German bund soared - reaching 500 in Spain, the highest level since the introduction of the euro - and the euro weakened further.