European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici said on Tuesday that he was hoping for a deal on Greece that would include its debt and the participation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Greek program by the end of the year. Speaking at a Morning Exchange Live event organised by the Brussels-based weekly “Politico”, Moscovici also noted that ‘Grexit’ was no longer on the cards after many years of work that had been done to avoid it.
“We want to build a success story with Greece,” he said, while referring to “good progress” in implementing prior actions.
A Greek exit would have turned the eurozone into a fixed rate regime, Moscovici noted, and “history shows that they don’t survive.”
The Commissioner also called for greater “intelligence and flexibility” in applying the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact, which he said needed to be simplified.
“We need to commit on the coherence of the pact. We can discuss that. Simplify, yes. Destroy? Certainly not,” he concluded.