Tue, 30 Jun, 2015 12:02:43 AM Stubb sees no direct impact of Greece situation on Finland FTimes – STT Report, June 30  Prime Minister Juha Sipilä spoke in the meeting of parliamentary grand committee on the European council meeting on Greece on Monday. Photo Lehtikuva. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Monday said they are waiting on the results of the referendum in Greece, with hopes of preventing the crisis from spreading beyond Greece’s borders.
Sipilä does not believe that anything new will happen in the Greek negotiations this week. At this stage, he did not want to predict whether Greece would abandon the euro or whether Finland would be getting its money back from Greece.
“We are waiting calmly first for the results of the referendum, and after that, there will be further negotiations,” Sipilä said while speaking at the parliamentary grand committee on the European Council meeting.
The prime minister believes it to be a positive thing that Finland has guarantees.
“I believe that [the guarantees] are working in this situation just as they should. Greece has said clearly that they disagree,” he said.
Sipilä believes that Greece’s crisis is unlikely to spread to other eurozone countries, as they have complied with the programmes, and their situations are dissimilar.
“Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus have all enacted measures, which were jointly agreed upon, and the situations there are very different,” said the prime minister.
Greek banks are closed this week and possibly next week, too, according to Sipilä, as a way to prevent the situation from descending into chaos.
There is no exact information about the situation from the Greek treasury, according to Sipilä.
Finance Minister Alexander Stubb spoke on the development of Eurogroup meeting in parliament on Monday. Photo Lehtikuva. The prime minister does not believe the situation will greatly influence, for example, Finnish government bond interest rates.
“I believe the situation is to some extent expected. Eurozone countries are, however, committed to the stability of the euro. It will not affect Finland,” said Sipilä, who believes that if Greece was on the right track last year, the situation would be quite different now.
Sipilä could not say whether a Greek departure from the euro would also mean a departure from the EU.
“Leaving the eurozone has never happened. But in principle, leaving the EU goes hand in hand with abandoning the euro,” he added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Alexander Stubb believes that Finland’s 930 million euros in guarantees to Greece are a central part of the whole agreement, but that they should not be processed now.
“We have now done everything so that the deal will not fall through,” Stubb said.
He expects the Greek situation will have no direct impact on Finland. But if the instability continues, it could affect economic development.
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