Schäuble: Less money in the new bailout package for Greece

"Next year we should consider new measures for Greece," the German Finance Minister said to Handelsblatt

The third program of support for Greece will be "much more limited" than the previous two, Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview today, after mentioning the scenario of a new support program for Greece earlier this week.

"We foresee additional aid provided that the government in Athens will fulfill its commitments and keeping in mind that it will be for amounts much more limited than it the ones so far," Schäuble told Handelsblatt.

Earlier in the week had said that Eurozone countries should support Greece beyond 2014, deviating from the official German and European line that lies in the referral of any decision on the matter for the next year.

Schäuble gives Handelsblatt an explanation for such a very direct statement, which caused much dissension, as Germany is going through a pre-election period. "I do not want to be blamed after the elections (...) that I did not tell the truth from the start. This is why I'm pleased that the general public now understand well what I say and repeat from 2012: Next year we will have to consider new measures for Greece."