Guy Verhofstadt today commented on the delayed negotiations to conclude the second bailout for Greece in return for acceptance of the Troika demands for further savings:

"It is not by discussing with Mr Venizelos on how to raise €300 million that Greece's debt problems will be solved. The Eurogroup, as one arm of the Troika, must insist on significant structural reforms to the Greek State, the bloated public sector and its role in holding back entrepreneurship and growth which are currently lacking from current negotiations."

"The present focus on wage cuts and new taxes should be shifted to scrapping unproductive state corporations and agencies, privatising the banks, market liberalisation in the many highly regulated sectors of the economy and an overhaul of the tax system. Only then will we effectively address the root cause of Greece's indebtedness rather than just the symptoms."

"At present the Greek people are being punished for the incompetence and short-term electoral interests of their political leaders who have tacitly supported, for decades, a clientilist system of patronage and favours. The draft deal on the table now combines a substantial haircut by private bondholders (PSI) and finalisation of a second bailout worth €130bn. Yet it is being blocked by a dispute about the level of acceptable cuts to supplementary pensions amounting to €300 million."

"Though agreement now is vital to buy Greece time and avoid an imminent and disorderly default, the IMF approach has been blinkered by attempting to impose an austerity template on Greece that ignores the main problem, namely the bloated size of the State sector in Greek public life that is free riding on the back of the taxpayers."