– It’s Official: German Economy Minister Demands Surrender Of Greek Budget Policy, Says It Is First Of Many Such Sovereign “Requests” (ZeroHedge, Jan. 29, 2012):
While over the past 2 days there may have been some confusion as to who, what, how or where is demanding that Greece abdicate fiscal sovereignty (with some of our German readers supposedly insulted by the suggestion that this idea originated in Berlin, and specifically with politicians elected by a majority of the German population), today’s quotefest from German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler appearing in Germany’s Bild should put any such questions to bed. And from this point on, Greece would be advised to not play dumb anymore vis-a-vis German annexation demands. So from Reuters, “Greece must surrender control of its budget policy to outside institutions if it cannot implement reforms attached to euro zone rescue measures, the German economy minister was quoted as saying on Sunday. Philipp Roesler became the first German cabinet member to openly endorse a proposal for Greece to surrender budget control after Reuters quoted a European source on Friday as saying Berlin wants Athens to give up budget control.” And some bad news for our Portuguese (and then Spanish) readers: you are next.
“We need more leadership and monitoring when it comes to implementing the reform course,” Roesler, also vice chancellor, told Bild newspaper, according to an advance of an interview to be published on Monday.
“If the Greeks aren’t able to succeed themselves with this, then there must be stronger leadership and monitoring from abroad, for example through the EU,” added Roesler, chairman of the Free Democrats (FDP) who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel.