Greece Lets Another Bailout Deadline Slip as Merkel Presses

Speaking in Paris alongside French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel said she wanted quick action from Athens.

Follow us

"We want Greece to stay in the euro," she told a news conference. But she added: "I want to make clear once again that there can be no deal if the troika proposals are not implemented. They are on the table, time is of the essence. Something needs to happen quickly."

Merkel, whose country is Europe's main paymaster, made clear that the deal affected not only Greece but the wider currency bloc, which fears that a default would hit much larger economies such as Spain and Italy.

"A lot is at stake for the entire euro zone," she said.

NO ULTIMATUM

Earlier, a Greek government official denied that the three parties in the coalition government had been given an ultimatum to respond on Monday, after weeks of arguing over another wave of austerity in return for the 130 billion euro bailout.

In Brussels, the European Commission took issue with this. "We have gone beyond the deadline already," Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj told a news briefing, adding that the Greek authorities had still to take the necessary decisions.

Challenged about the troika's demand to cut Greece's minimum wage, he said it averaged 871 euros a month, compared with 748 euros in Spain, which is not under an EU/IMF rescue program, and 566 euros in Portugal, which has received a bailout.

Talks on the bailout have dragged on for weeks.

Panos Beglitis, spokesman of the PASOK socialist party, said on Sunday that leaders of the three parties backing technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos' government had to give their responses in principle by noon (1000 GMT). On Monday he said this deadline had slipped to Tuesday.