Regling: Greece will face financial problems sooner or later

He warns that Greece will not have money to fund the pension system in the next five years

President of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Klaus Regling said in an interview with French Le Figaro that although he sees signs of improvement regarding the relations between Greece and its international creditors, Greece will face financial problems sooner or later.

Mr. Regling stressed that “there is a completely different atmosphere now. The first six months of the previous year was a disaster” since back then “the Greek finance minister did not cooperate at all with the European institutions” he added referring to Yanis Varoufakis.

The head of the ESM referred also to the negotiations for pension and social security reforms saying that “pension reforms are tough for all countries, because they may question the acquired rights. This is, therefore, a serious phase and the Greek government has to go through it.”

“But it is encouraging to see that the starting point between Greece and its creditors are not so different,” he added.

Mentioning that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has stated that the current system is unsustainable, he warned that if the country does nothing, Greece will not have money to fund the pension system in the next five years.

“They won’t need financial aid as of  tomorrow. But, they will face financial problems sooner or later”.

aaale figarro