EU finance boss warns Greece to comply with eurozone rules

BRUSSELS 

A senior euro finance chief has warned Greece it will receive little support from policy makers if there are any calls for debt to be written off.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch Finance Minister and head of the Eurozone finance ministers’ group said on Monday: ''We’ve already done a lot to take off the debt pressure and the debt burden by reducing interest rates allowing longer periods for them to repay loans … so … there doesn’t seem to be a great urgency there.''

Dijsselbloem’s comments followed the victory of anti-austerity party Syriza in the Greek elections on Sunday’s elections.

The left-wing party, which won 36.3 percent of the vote, stood against austerity measures imposed by the Troika of the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission and is seeking to renegotiate Greece’s €240bn "bailout" program.

'Legitimate view'

Dijsselbloem added: ''I think our joint issue, our joint goal, is to strengthen the Greek economy within the Eurozone that is also an ambition that they [the Greek government] have.

"Working within the Eurozone of course also means that they comply [with] all the rules and agreements that we have in the Eurozone.''

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said before the Eurogroup meeting: ''This Eurogroup has to give a strong signal that we want to start discussing with the new government that we fully recognize the clarity of the legitimacy of the new government after the choice of the voters yesterday.''

Anti-austerity drive

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said: ''It is common sense that the Commission must work with whatever government a country has.''

The right-wing Independent Greeks party agreed to form a coalition government with the leftist Syriza.

Although ideologically different from Syriza, Independent Greeks share its anti-austerity policy.

Syriza won 36.3 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections, with the ruling coalition gaining 27.8 percent, giving Syriza a projected 149 seats in the 300-seat parliament - two short of an absolute majority needed to form a single-party government.