Mitsotakis: Greece will not accept conditions on coronavirus aid
In an interview to the Financial Times, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says that he would not accept a return to the sort of strict and unpopular oversight once imposed on Greece by its creditors in return for EU emergency aid to deal with the effects of the coronavirus.
"Greece has matured a lot" since the days of its debt crisis, Mitsotakis said, "and we want to do our own reforms."
The former "troika" of Greece's creditors, the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund had "forced (Greece) to do reforms" even though "there was never really any domestic buy-in"
A six-monthly review of economic performance carried out by the European Commission was sufficient, Mitsotakis said.
Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands are opposed to the Commission's plans for the recovery fund and are pushing for so-called "conditionality" to be applied to EU money to ensure it is spent to improve competitiveness. German chancellor Angela Merkel, who supports the recovery fund, has said the money must be used to "future proof" the countries' economies.
Greece will receive a total of €32 billion out of the €750 billion fund, if the Commission proposal is enacted upon.
[Financial Times]
