More power to Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis who refuses to be railroaded or pigeonholed by the Troika or its journalist apologists.
There’s more reason in this interview than in five years of European crises (and probably since 1999 when the busted euro project was born).
Meanwhile, the ECB is saber-rattling, from Reuters:
A deal on extending Greece’s bailout deal must be found by the end of February or the European Central Bank will not be able to continue lending to its banks, ECB council member Erkki Liikanen said on Saturday.
Europe’s bailout programme for Greece, part of a 240-billion-euro ($270 billion) rescue package along with the International Monetary Fund, expires on Feb. 28 and a failure to renew it could leave Athens unable to meet its financing needs and cut its banks off from ECB liquidity support.
…”We (ECB) have our own legislation and we will act according to that… Now, Greece’s programme extension will expire in the end of February so some kind of solution must be found, otherwise we can’t continue lending,” Liikanen, also the governor of Finland’s central bank, told public broadcaster YLE.
And here’s the timetable of important dates over the next month, from ZH:
- Friday January 30th – Eurogroup President Dijsselbloem meets with the Greek finance minister Varoufakis and Deputy PM Dragasakis in Athens. A press conference will follow, with the meeting likely setting the tone of negotiations to follow.
- Sunday February 1st – Greek finance minister Varoufakis meets UK finance minister Osborne in London.
- Monday February 2nd – Greek finance minister Varoufakis meets French finance minister Sapin in Paris Tuesday
- February 2nd – Greek finance minister Varoufakis meets Italian finance minister Padoan in Rome
- Wednesday February 4th-5th – Bi-weekly ECB review of ELA
- Wednesday February 4th – Likely t-bill auction to cover 1bn redemption on 6th
- Thursday February 5th – Greek parliament opens, elects new speaker of the House
- Saturday February 7-9th Government presents legislative agenda to parliament, vote of confidence midnight Monday 9th
- Wednesday February 11th – Likely tbill auction to cover 1.4bn maturity on 13th
- Thursday February 12th – European Council of EU Leaders, Tsipras likely to meet Merkel on sidelines
- Friday February 13th – Voting for new Greek President begins, EC Commissioner Avramopoulos most likely candidate as per various media reports, originating from New Democracy. Likely completed by second round on the following day requiring 151 MP majority
- Monday February 16th – Eurogroup where Greece likely to be top of agenda, conditions for extension of program to be made explicit by now
- Wednesday February 18th-19th- – Bi-weekly ELA review
- Saturday February 28th – Current EFSF program expires
Stick it to ’em, Yanis!
