“You can hear Schaeuble’s voice saying that the profits from Greek bonds he wanted for the German budget,” Yanis Varoufakis revealed in an interview ahead of the controversial release of his secret recordings from the Eurogroup sessions in the first half of 2015. “Don’t you want to hear Schaeuble speaking …
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Dijsselbloem claims Greece’s “statutory retirement age will go to 76”
Former Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem wrote a blog post about the pensions system in general and the one in Greece in particular. He supports the Greek government position that the controversial pension cuts “are unnecessary.” However, at the same time he claims that “the statutory retirement age in Greece will …
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Dijsselbloem: Greece should have been grateful to European aid, kept mouth shut
Greece should have been grateful to European aid and kept its mouth shut, the former chief of Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said more or less in an interview on Saturday. He has clearly not recovered yet from the traumatic experience with former Greek finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. At the same time …
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Dijsselbloem: Tsipras and Tsakalotos made things much easier
“Prime minister Alexis Tsipras and, of course, [current finance minister] Euclid Tsakalotos, have completely changed the relationship with the European partners. Almost everything has been easier since . . . it’s a completely different situation,” outgoing Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in an interview to Financial Times. He said further that he never backed …
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Dijsselbloem admits “first bailout for Greece was aiming to rescue foreign investors”
The main aim especially of the first Greek bailout was to rescue investors outside Greece, outgoing Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem admitted in the European Parliament on Thursday. Odd. Less than a month ago, Dijsselbloem said that the bailout was used to save the banks. “There were mistakes in the first …
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Portugal’s socialist Mario Centeno wins Eurogroup Presidency
Portugal’s Finance Minister, socialist Mario Centeno won the Eurogroup presidency in two rounds of voting in Brussels Monday afternoon! The Latvian and Slovak finance ministers dropped out after the first round. Centeno won in a head to head against Luxemburg’s Pierre Gramegna. 51-year-old Mario Centeno is an economist and academic …
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Dijsselbloem admits “We used taxpayers’ money to save the banks”
“We had a banking crisis, a fiscal crisis and we spent lot of the tax-payers’ money – in the wrong way, in my opinion – to save the banks” outgoing Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said adding “so that the people criticizing us and saying that everything was being done for …
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Dijsselbloem announces he is quitting Dutch politics, stay as Eurogroup head until…
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem announced that he will quit national politics as of Oct 25th, but he will stay on as the Eurogroup head until January 2018. He was caretaker finance minister after his party suffered big losses in the national elections in March. He will also quit the …
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Dijsselbloem tells Greeks when to hold next parliamentary elections
Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem urged Greeks to “Keep up the good work” and do not hold their next parliamentary elections earlier than 2019, as planned. In an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini newspaper Dijseelbloem said “we must conclude the programme together to ensure that Greece will exit the …
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Dijsselbloem tells Greece to wrap up review quickly for a “clean” bailout exit
Greece must wrap up an upcoming bailout review quickly to pave the way for a “clean” bailout exit next summer without further conditions beyond standard monitoring, Eurogroup Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said during a visit to Athens on Monday. “We are in full agreement for that – it should be a …
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Greece to remain under supervision after bailout program ends, says Dijsselbloem
“Greece will remain under supervision after it exits its current bailout programme next year,” Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem told a Greek newspaper short before arriving in Athens on Monday. Prime minister Alexis Tsipras has been telling Greeks that ‘creditors’ supervision will be over once the bailout program concludes in August …
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A Eurogroup without whining about a Greek ‘something’ is half the joy…
As if we did not have enough trouble with the oil spill, a long-time-not-seen Eurogroup meeting took place in Tallinn, Estonia, today. Greece’s lenders came together to catch up with the struggling country. Top on the agenda was the implementation of the Greek program and the third review. Eurogroup head …
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Dutch far-right Wilders: Greeks spend their money on souvlaki and ouzo
This is one of the glorious moments of bottomless populism and the absolute absence of culture and knowledge of culture. I am writing this not because I feel offended reading that a far-right Dutch populist claims Greeks spend the money on souvlaki and ouzo. His compatriot, the so-called social-democrat Jeroen …
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Dijsselbloem says Greece’s debt relief issue will be bumped in 2018
Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters on Thursday that the Greek debt issue will be bumped to 2018, while a long-overdue second review of the Greek bailout will be achieved at a same-day Eurogroup meeting. The Eurogroup head and Dutch finance minister made the comments just before entering a session …
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Dijsselbloem’s “alcohol and women” subject of university entrance exams
Tensions within the Eurogroup and particularly Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s derogatory comments regarding the European South was one of the subjects in exams for university entrance. In Valencia, Spain, aspiring university students were asked to develop their thoughts on the most famous statement of the head of Eurogroup: the countries of the …
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Dijsselbloem: Greece needs to complete all prior actions before bailout tranche released
Head of Eurogroup and still acting Dutch fiance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that Greece needs to complete all prior actions before the 7-billion euros bailout tranche is released. In his role as finance minister Dijsselbloem said in a letter to the Dutch Parliament to inform about the results of the …
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Stormy meeting behind closed doors: Eurogroup Minutes leaked to Greek website
A great scoop for a Greek website that obtained the minutes from the Eurogroup meeting on May 22 2017. Economic news website Euro2day.gr publishes six pages of the minutes of the stormy meeting on Monday that ended in failure. Blame is initially on the International Monetary Fund. Until the German …
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Eurogroup: Greece talks break down, when Schaeuble and IMF fail to bridge the gap
Decisions taken by the eurozone finance minister at the Eurogroup on Monday were supposed to be from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’. What really happened was a long meeting that ended in suspending the meeting and postponing the decisions for three weeks later. Not only there was no decision on debt relief. …
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Greece will need debt relief, says Dijsselbloem at EU Parliament Plenary
Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem appeared at the Plenary of European Parliament for the first time after he stirred the Europeans of the South with insulting remarks. He made a kind of apology saying “I did not want to hurt anyone.” But as the Plenary topic was Greece, Dijsselbloem gave a …
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Dijsselbloem: Income tax measures €1.8bn in 2019 if Greece misses targets
In a letter to the members of the Eurogroup, chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem summarized what was agreed upon at the meeting in Malta on April 7th 2017. In his letter Dijsselbloem reveals also what the Greek government agreed on the implementation of the additional austerity measures scheduled to be implemented in …
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