Half of Germans against debt relief for Greece

BERLIN (Reuters) – Around half of Germans are against granting debt relief to Greece and around three in 10 want the debt-laden country to quit the eurozone, a survey showed yesterday. The INSA poll for the Bild newspaper showed 46.4 per- cent of people living in Germany, Europe’s paymaster, thought giving Greece debt relief would be unfair for other eurozone countries. That compared with around a fifth (18.4 percent) who did not share that view and 9.1 percent who said they did not care. Athens and its creditors agreed on Monday to resume talks on a longstalled review of Greece’s bailout, but only after Greece accepted examination of its reforms for 2019 onward. The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said on Wednesday that Greece does not need a haircut on its debt at the moment but added that debt restructuring and interest rate cuts on bailout loans were necessary. The German government, preparing for an election on September 24, is against debt relief for Greece. said on Thursday, despite the risk of delays to this option for reducing dependence on Russia. Politicians and ministers meeting in Baku backed the $40 billion, 3,500-kilometer chain of pipelines, a step toward curbing Russia’s one-third share of Europe’s natural gas market. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is the project’s end piece, joining up with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline at the Turkish border, then crossing Greece and Albania to reach Italy. But the slow pace of work in Italy’s Puglia region and growing concern over Azerbaijan’s ability to honor its supply commitments – it faces domestic shortfalls – have knocked confidence in the project.