BERLIN
Germany has criticized Greece for floating the idea of holding a referendum on its bailout program and urged Athens to instead focus on speeding up the implementation of reforms.
German Finance Ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretary Steffen Kampeter made the comments Monday ahead of a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels at which reform proposals were to be discussed.
Kampeter told German public radio Deutschlandfunk: "The reality is that a new political assessment by the Greek people would not bring anything more than a delay of the resumption of the program.
"We respect the election decisions, but elections in a country would not invalidate the democratic and legitimate decisions already agreed with the remaining 18 member states."
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis suggested Sunday that Greece could hold a referendum on its bailout plan if European creditors rejected Athens' proposals for economic reform.
- 'Serious discussions'
But Kampeter criticized the Greek government for not using the past few weeks in a "meaningful way" and argued that Greece had to honor contractual agreements, give up its "ideological approach" and engage in pragmatic talks in order to overcome the crisis.
He said: "Greece should finally engage in serious discussions and begin negotiations with the troika.
"Exchanging non-binding letters is not enough."
Greece's "troika" creditors of the IMF, European Central Bank and the European Commission have demanded concrete and detailed reform proposals from Athens before approving the next installment of €7.2 billion ($7.8 billion) in bailout aid.
Greece, which is entirely dependent on the European Central Bank for emergency loans, is expected to run out of funds this month if the bailout payment is not made.
