EU keep up pressure on Greece
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Finance ministers of the European Union (EU) on Tuesday kept up pressure on Greece, urging the country to be ready for additional measures in the coming month to reduce its ballooning budget deficit.
"Greece shall announce additional measures by mid-March to meet the target of deficit reduction for this year," EU Monetary and Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told a press conference after the meeting.
"The Commission is responsible for monitoring the measures proposed and their impact, and with our first assessment on these measures on mid-March," he added.
Rehn said the Commission will be on the ground in Athens in the coming days this week or next week "to verify the implementation and results of these measures" and verify the stability program of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
"We can help Greece in these difficult times, since Greece is ready to help itself by determined actions," the commissioner said.
The EU finance ministers reiterated the request made by finance ministers of the 16-member Eurozone at their monthly meeting held on Monday. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Eurogroup, said after Monday's meeting that Greece agreed to present a report to the European Commission on March 16 on its efforts to cut deficit, and if its current debt reduction plan did not work fast enough, additional measures would be imposed on Athens.
Greece had promised to cut its deficit, which reached a staggering 12.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, by four percentage points this year, and bring it below the EU's ceiling of three percent of GDP in 2012. However, markets have recently been nervous about Greece's capability to fulfill its commitments. Fear of spreading debt crisis in the euro zone sent the euro to a nine-month lowest against the U.S. dollar days ago.
EU leaders agreed in an informal summit last week that eurozone members will "take determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole," but the pledge failed to meet the expectation of the market and was criticized as lack of details.
