When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Greece

Report: Greece Needs Another 30 Billion And Two More Years

Greek PM Antonis Samaras
Greek PM Antonis Samaras
Cerstin Gammelin and Alexander Hagelüken

BRUSSELS - Greece needs at least two more years and an additional 30 billion euros in order to be able to meet the targets set for it by the euro zone countries, European sources tell Süddeutsche Zeitung.

When – and indeed if – the country gets money from the second bailout package is unclear. In the words of one high-level EU diplomat: “We now have a fundamental problem.”

High-level diplomats confirmed on Monday in Brussels that Greece would remain for longer than initially planned on the euro zone financial drip. The country will presumably not be able to pay its way from 2015, as planned, without additional financial help.

Greece will also not be able to meet its target of being able to refinance its debt entirely on financial markets from 2020. According to both Brussels and European national banks, Athens needs "at least two years" more to get back on its feet, and they both put the new financial hole at "some 30 billion euros."

Meanwhile, the matter of whether (and if so when) the country, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, gets a further tranche from the second bailout fund remains open. That would put up to 130 billion euros of euro zone and International Monetary Fund (IMF) money at Greece’s disposal, but it is only supposed to be paid when Greece meets its targets, so that it can stand on its own two feet from 2020 onwards.

Should that not be the case, IMF statutes call for payments to be discontinued. However, were the IMF to step back, there would no longer be any basis for some single-currency-zone countries, Germany among them, to continue paying.

German veto

To try and find a way out, at a recent meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Cyprus, IMF boss Christine Lagarde proposed giving Greece more time to put into effect the requisite reforms, and that the euro countries take over the additional costs. This was refused by several countries including Germany.

European central bankers say that the underlying cause of the present situation is that crisis-shaken Greece has gone into the second aid package with a hole of more than 10 billion euros, and Athens is failing to implement numerous measures as planned -- for example, reformation of the tax system and the sale of state property.

And now Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is asking for two additional years to fulfill austerity requirements. Because of the catastrophic state of the Greek economy, which has been shrinking for five years, Samaras says it is not in the realm of possibility to cut government spending so quickly. He fears that, if he does, unemployment will rise even more.

According to central bankers, Greece’s standing as a euro zone country continues to be very iffy. While other member countries wanted to keep Athens in, public skepticism is making governments reluctant to come up with the extra money. And yet as one national bank source put it: "If Greece is to stay in the zone, the governments are going to have to come up with 30 billion euros."

The big worry now is that the governments want to push responsibility onto the European Central Bank (ECB) that made emergency funding of 3.5 billion euros available to Greece this past August and holds some 40 billion euro in Greek government bonds.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest