BERLIN: Greek banks do not need to be nationalised but should receive direct support from the currency bloc's bailout fund, the head of a new EU task force set up to help rebuild the Greek economy was quoted on Friday as saying.
"The banks did rock solid business until the start of the debt crisis. Therefore I see no reason for nationalisation," Horst Reichenbach told the Handelsblatt newspaper.
"It would be desirable to support the banks themselves, such as with means from the euro rescue fund (European Financial Stability Facility) EFSF or with loans from the European Investment Bank."
Reichenbach heads a 25-member team that will draft quarterly reports on the country's reform progress. It will work separately from the EU, IMF and ECB inspectors known as the troika who decide whether Athens qualifies for its quarterly bailout instalments.
Reichenbach also said 70 percent of 20 billion euros of structural funds had so far not been touched and could be used to support Greek infrastructure and industry, filling a gap left by private investors who had pulled out of projects.
Reichenbach identified tourism, agriculture and renewable energy as sectors which could earn Athens money.
Greek-German talks on solar energy had advanced but the industry would still need to be subsidised currently, Reichenbach said.
Asked whether German electricity consumers should support Greece's solar investments, he said:
"That's exactly what German and Greek authorities are currently working on," adding that that would make necessary a change to Germany's renewable energy law and that Greece could hopefully start solar energy production next year.
Copyright Reuters, 2011
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