EU losing patience with Greece, warns Germany

berlin — German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Sunday warned debt-hit Greece that patience is running out across Europe as Athens struggles to reach a deal with its creditors to avoid default.

“We want to help Greece and keep it in the euro. However, not just time is running out but also, everywhere in Europe, patience,” Gabriel wrote in a commentary for the mass-circulation Bild daily.

“All over Europe there is a growing sentiment: Enough!”

The warning was unusually blunt for Gabriel, the head of the centre-left Social Democrats, which are junior coalition partners to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

Gabriel, who is also economy minister, attacked Greece’s negotiating process and warned that Germany, seen as Europe’s effective paymaster, could stop supporting Athens.

“Ever new supposed ‘final attempts’ to reach agreement are beginning

A man walks past the EU and Greek near the port of Piraeus. Greek and EU-IMF negotiators were locked in last-chance talks on Sunday to avert a default by Athens. —

to make the entire process look ridiculous,” he wrote, according to an excerpt from the article to be published Monday.

“Ever more people feel they are being led around by the nose by the Greek government.

“If the agreement doesn’t come soon, it will threaten to snap the patience of many in Europe,” Gabriel warned.

“The game theorists of the Greek government are just about to gamble away the future of their country. And that of Europe as well.” — london — Several of the biggest fund managers based in London are drawing up plans to move trillions of pounds of assets and thousands of jobs outside of Britain should the country vote to leave the EU in a referendum due by the end of 2017, the

said. Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives won an unexpected majority in polls last month and are now seeking to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the 28-member bloc ahead of a plebiscite.

Cameron has toured major European capitals to drum up support for reforms but is facing an increasing strong Eurosceptic voice from within his own centreright party at home.

The said that several major funds had said on condition of anonymity that they had set up committees to prepare for a possible move, with Luxembourg being one possible country to which they could relocate.

The newspaper said it had spoken

The chance of a ‘Brexit’ is very low A senior executive

of PIMCO

to fund managers who believed they could be forced to leave due to EU regulations which only allow the sale of investment products in the bloc when the European headquarters are based in a member state.

On Friday, the only major ratings agency still to give Britain a top-notch credit rating said it risked a downgrade due to the government’s decision to hold a referendum over EU membership.

However, a senior executive with global investment firm PIMCO said earlier this week that the chance of a ‘Brexit’ was very low and uncertainty over the referendum outcome was not likely to affect business investment.