During the EP Plenary session (13-16/02) in Strasbourg, Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, Pervenche BERES (S&amp;D, FR), Sylvie GOULARD (ALDE, FR), William The Earl of DARTMOUTH (EFDD, UK), Sven GIEGOLD (Greens/EFA, DE), Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS (GUE/NGL, EL)&nbsp;express themselves on the state of play of the economic adjustment programme for Greece

State of play of the economic adjustment programme for Greece: extracts from the debate

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SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, The completion of the second programme review is at a critical stage and must proceed without undue delay in order to underpin the progress that we have seen in the last 18 months. Agreement should be within reach if all partners work partners work actively to bridge remaining gaps.

SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, This is not a time to call our results into question or jeopardise positive economic signals but to underpin confidence and help jobs, growth and investment to return to Greece.

SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, But it&rsquo;s important that all parties involved show political will. By keeping the programme on track we will help to build on the current economic recovery in Greece, allowing it to return to sustainable growth and jobs creation.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Manolis KEFALOGIANNIS (EPP, EL), The reforms certainly are not going as fast as they should. The government is hesitating moving forward with privatisation even those privatisations have been decided upon they are not proceeding according to the plan. What we are seeing is increases on taxes rather than a reduction of expenditure. It&rsquo;s important that our country should emerge from the country finally, that it should orientate itself towards Europe and have a free economy without constant intervention from Mr Tsipras or the state.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pervenche BER&#200;S (S&amp;D, FR), If in Berlin or elsewhere there are those who want to push Greece out of the Eurozone, let them say that openly, let&rsquo;s debate this here; but constantly holding this needle over Greece, even when the figures are talking and a recommendation to conclude the second review is the right thing to do. The IMF says Greek debt is unsustainable, and the time has come for a realistic approach, and I think this is the only possible course of action for the institution that you represent.

SOUNDBITE (French), Sylvie GOULARD (ALDE, FR), It&rsquo;s a shame that now that things are improving, now that growth is not negligible and a number of other indicators seem to be going in the right direction, nevertheless there is still a grey cloud over our heads and that&rsquo;s very bad in psychological and political terms. I hope that the ECB and the IMF are capable of managing all of this in a calm and factual manner and confront the Greek government with its responsibilities, but also confront the whole of the Eurogroup with its own responsibilities, we cannot still be in crisis-management mode so many years after the crisis started.

SOUNDBITE (English), William The Earl of DARTMOUTH (EFDD, UK), Greece cannot pay its debt and what should happen is that the lenders must admit and accept that the money that they&rsquo;ve lent to Greece simply will not be paid back. In consequence the lenders must forgive some or all of these loans. Unfortunately there is absolutely no sign of this happening.

SOUNDBITE (German), Sven GIEGOLD (Greens/EFA, DE), We want Greece to implement reforms, but what kind of reforms? Taxes are being raised for those who are not earning very much and at the same time the entire system of health is going to be rebuilt, even though there is no basic safety net. I think we have to keep our promises to Greece and they need a sustainable course for reform and here I would rather support the Commission rather than those who are disrupting this debate.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS (GUE/NGL, EL), Here is the question: are you going to help Greece to get out of its situation and cut out unemployment or are you just going to let time go by and give way to the IMF or Mr Sch&auml;uble? Because all what this is doing is to generate uncertainty and head us in the wrong direction. And all those talking about Grexit are harming the Eurogroup, and what they really want is Tsipras exit.

State of play of the economic adjustment programme for Greece: extracts from the debate

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