Debate at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the Economic Dialogue and exchange of views with Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup in the EP in Brussels.&nbsp;Statements by Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of Eurogroup, Burkhard BALZ (EPP, DE), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT) and Sampo TERHO (ECR, FI) and Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS (GUE/NGL, EL)

Brussels

exchange of views

debate

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

economic dialogue (T)

DIJSSELBLOEM, Jeroen

PAPADIMOULIS, Dimitrios (The Left, EL)

BALZ, Burkhard (EPP, DE)

FERREIRA, Elisa (S&D, PT, EC)

TERHO, Sampo (ECR, FI)

Economic Dialogue and exchange of views with Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup: MEPs debate

SOUNDBITE (German), Burkhard BALZ (EPP, DE), "And then of course there is a question: how seriously are the Greek government taking these reforms?"

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of Eurogroup, "How serious is the Greek government when it comes to reforms? I think they are very serious. But it's a new Greek government with quite different political vision than the previous one and therefore they want some changes within the agreement".

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of Eurogroup, "It's not going to be easy; this is just a first step. This list is not a new MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) or a new agreement. This list is just an indication of the kind of reforms that they would like to push or like to replace and also the ones that they would like to continue. It's going to take time to get into the details and to design a new contract or agreement which will carry us on for 4 months".

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA (S&amp;D, PT), <p>"How far would you subscribe to the sentences said by Mario Draghi when he said that Eurozone will be preserved whatever it takes and, I quote, Jean-Claude Juncker's assurance that an exit of Greece will not happen. Is this permanently present in your agenda? And what is the spirit for the negotiation that you still have to do in what concerns the structural reforms agenda?"</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, "I very much agree with Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Juncker that 'grexit' is simply not on the table, it's not discussed, I will not even prepare any thoughts about it. My target is to maintain the eurozone intact in the stronger way, resilient to work together and to stick together. Sometimes that's difficult and we are going to encounter a lot of problems, and yet we'll stick together, that's my position".

SOUNDBITE (English), Sampo TERHO (ECR, FI), "What kind of political, legal or economic framework could you imagine discussing even with the Eurogroup in order to minimise the possible negative spillover effects if a country leaves? And I say that the most dangerous answer for the Eurogroup or the EU as a whole at this point would be to decline this discussion altogether".

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of the Eurogroup, ""You said that a number of Member states did prepare, and I only heard about one country where the Cabinet had a meeting to talk about Grexit and that was the British Government. At least this is what I heard in the media. And as you know the Brits are as not yet members of the Eurogroup. So no it's not discussed, and it shows that we have a very strong political commitment to keep the Eurozone intact".

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS (GUE/NGL, EL), "As regards of the Eurogroup decision from November 2012, the Eurogroup committed as soon as there is a Greek surplus budget to take extra measures to reduce debt, to reduce Greek debt, without having a major impact on European tax payers. Now there were discussions about this, but how will these measures will implemented with the Greek authorities?"

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of Eurogroup, "We will come back to this issue on the basis of the 4 months extension if this will be agreed, that will allow the new Greek government to fulfil its commitments, then we can finalise the whole programme period, we can make a new debt sustainability analysis. And then we will see what further measures are necessary, if necessary, we can take".

SOUNDBITE (English), Ernest URTASUN (Greens/ALE, ES), "Mr DIJSSELBLOEM, you want to work for the integrity of Eurozone and this is welcomed but I have to say that you have put in the last days the Greek membership in the Eurozone in danger in order to force Greece to accept your agreement terms. And this led us close to a institutional failure destroying ECB credibility and undermining the Euro as a currency. And Mr DIJSSELBLOEM, I think it was an immense irresponsibility".

SOUNDBITE (English), Jeroen DIJSSELBLOEM, President of Eurogroup, "You speak about forcing Greece to agree, of course we did not. If the Greek government had said: we don't want this programme anymore, we don't want this way of cooperation anymore, that would have been also a choice available. What we've done now is to say: look, there still is a programme, let's try and finish it allowing the given flexibility in the programme. And it's now up to the Greek government to use that flexibility to put their own political stamp on the programme."