"The question of guarantees is political"

On Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos sent a letter to President Jean-Claude Juncker and the members of the Eurogroup - finance ministers of Eurozone member states, the Commissioner Olli Rehn and the ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, because of the question that has arisen concerning the requests by various Member States for the provision of guarantees.

The basic position of Greece is the need for full and immediate implementation of the decisions of the July 21 Eurozone Summit, which are not only or mainly about Greece, but about the Eurozone’s overall capability and readiness to deal with this acute phase of the international economic crisis; an issue that goes far beyond the programs of Greece, Ireland and Portugal and regards countries with a powerful economy and the Eurozone as a whole.

As Venizelos states in his letter, when taking into account the factors which enabled the unanimous decisions of the Eurozone Summit, which has to monitor 17 different domestic political circles, Greece has displayed the utmost goodwill and flexibility to promptly achieve and fully implement the decisions of July 21.

It is easy to find technical solutions on the condition that the credibility and effectiveness of the program will not be affected. But the question is purely political and should be treated as such in order to always send clear and positive messages both to the international markets and the European societies.