Berlin (AFP) – Alexis Tsipras and Angela Merkel called Monday for beyond the clichés that plague German-Greek relations, while Athens is still awaited on the reforms to be implemented in exchange for European assistance she urgently needed.
“The Greeks are not lazy and Germans are not responsible for all the ills of Greece. We must work hard to overcome these stereotypes,” said Mr Tsipras on the occasion of his first official visit to Berlin, a little less than two months after taking office.
An intention as defended by Angela Merkel at a joint press conference with end of the first interview a little over an hour between the two leaders were to continue at a dinner.
In an atmosphere more amiable, contrasting sharply with the high tension draping the first meeting in February, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble with his counterpart Yanis Varoufakis, Alexis Tsipras praised the sound quality of Angela Merkel, while the Chancellor assured that “both countries wanted to live together and were both of parts of the European Union. “
” We need to better understand us, there is no other way but dialogue, “said Mr. Tsipras came without tie.
The Chancellor admitted “hard questions” and “disagreements” between Athens and Berlin, but she assured will “cooperate in a spirit of mutual trust” and “an economically strong Greece”.
– liquidity problems –
Alexis Tsipras insisted that “the bailout (Greece) was not a success,” while claiming not to want not “destroy the positive recent years”, but finding “a new policy mix to solve the problems.”
The Greek official assured not coming to Berlin to ask for money, and recalled that “medium-term liquidity problems” the country “were known” and that he had “inherited”.
Faced with substantial repayments while its coffers are almost empty, Athens awaits unlocking at least part of the last tranche of loans (€ 7.2 billion) provided in connection with the extension of financial aid decided on February 20 by the Europeans.
Without a breakthrough short-term funds, “it will be + not + to Athens to ensure the debt service over the next week,” warned the Greek Prime Minister in a letter dated March 15 and revealed Monday by the Financial Times. Alexis Tsipras pledged in Brussels on Friday to promptly submit detailed reforms necessary condition of paying extra money, while the Commission announced making available of Athens “two billion euros for 2015″ .
Angela Merkel stressed that it was not for Germany to decide the quality of the reforms by Greece, but to all countries in the euro zone. Mr Tsipras has not clarified its intentions and claimed to have brought something with him in Berlin. “The beautiful Greek times”
– Repairs –
If The atmosphere was actually cordiality between Mr. Tsipras and Merkel, that did not stop the Greek Prime Minister to hand over sensitive subjects on the table.
It has requested support from Berlin in a huge corruption case involving in particular the German industrialist Siemens-old almost a decade and has been referred to court.
He has certainly not failed to re-emphasize the reparations claimed by Athens for crimes of the Nazi regime during World War II.
“It’s not a hardware issue, but first a moral and ethical issue that we must work,” Alexis Tsipras said, refusing to link the application to the issue of the current financial crisis in the country.
The file is “legally closed”, he once again said Angela Merkel.
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