The Slovenia Times

Slovenia Insists on Greece Honouring Its Commitments and Fair Attitude

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He criticised the Greek government for turning only to "some big countries, while simply bypassing Slovenia" in a bid to reach a compromise.

Slovenia was among the countries that showed greatest solidarity with Greece in its difficult years, for which it had greatly itself to blame, Marmor said coming for a meeting in which euro finance ministers will try to reach a compromise on aid to Greece after the current package expires at the end of the month.

He said that Slovenia's exposure to Greek debt is the third largest after Portugal and Cyprus in terms GDP. "Our exposure to Greece is 2.7% of GDP, which was in a year after we had a 8% fall in GDP and when we had to slash pay and economise in all areas."

This is why Slovenia will insist on Greece continuing with the restructuring and continuing to meet its obligations to Slovenia as well as international institutions, Mramor said.

"Given such an exposure Slovenia has toward Greece and such solidarity we provided, Greece has said it plans to raise pensions, raise pay, make employments in the public sector and demand an extra cut it its liabilities to Slovenia, while in Slovenia we are slashing pay and economising in all areas," Mramor said.

The Slovenian minister criticised not only the proposals made by the Greek government but also the way they were communicated.

"I'd expect a fair attitude from Greece, that they'd at least communicate with our government, at least through the embassy. But Greece only turned to some big countries while simply bypassing Slovenia."

He disagrees with the view that Greece is too indebted to be able to tackle its debt in the long term. "This does not hold true. Slovenia, which has half as much debt as Greece, has almost as much burden in interest cost in GDP and from that point of view the Greek debt is as much sustainable as Slovenia's."

Mramor said he would insist on a compromise with Greece including certain assurances that Greece would be able to repay its liabilities, adding that Slovenia was keen on reaching a deal that would "cool off the international markets and the neurosis".

The basis for today's debate in the Eurogroup is a comparative analysis of the existing bailout package and the proposals by Greece's new government that has been drawn up by experts from Greece, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

While Greece has been saying it would want to change 30% of the current package, technical talks ahead of today's ministerial showed the gap is considerably bigger, according to Mramor.

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