OR WHAT?

No debt forgiveness for Greece, say eurozone finance bosses

The eurozone has ruled out debt forgiveness for Greece and warned Alexis Tsipras that his anti-austerity coalition government must honour all past agreements with international creditors. 

 Euro area ministers met in Brussels on Monday and tempered election congratulations to Alex Tspiras, the new Greek prime minister, with warnings over the limits of concessions available for Greece.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs meetings of the Eurogroup, told the new Greek government not to expect any write down of the nominal or face value of the €316bn (£236bn) debt owed by Greece.

At least 85pc of the Greek debt is owned by the EU, International Monetary Fund and European governments meaning that the cost of any write downs or cancellation would be predominantly borne by taxpayers in eurozone countries hostile to bailouts, such as Germany or Finland. 

Mr Schäuble of Germany reminded Mr Tsipras that “obligations apply” and the condition of talks would be Greek compliance with the terms of the existing EU-IMF agreement providing aid in return for structural economic reforms.

“There are rules, there are agreements,” he said. 

"Passen Mir Die Schnapps, Greichen Shweinhundt" he added.