BERLIN: Germany’s commissioner to the European Union says he expects a future aid package for Greece to amount to a little more than ¤10bn ($13.36bn) — which is much smaller than the country’s existing two rescue deals.
Guenther Oettinger, the EU’s Energy Commissioner and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservative party, said yesterday the third aid package should cover the years 2014-2016.
In two bailout packages so far, Greece’s European partners and the International Monetary Fund have committed ¤240bn ($320bn) in loans. This week, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there will have to be another aid programme after the current one expires next year.
Oettinger’s comments to weekly Welt am Sonntag came four weeks before Germany’s general elections on September 22.
FRANKFURT: A joint venture of EADS and ThyssenKrupp and offices of Rheinmetall were raided this week in Germany on suspicion of paying bribes related to an order of submarine equipment from Greece, a spokesman for the state prosecutor in Bremen said yesterday.
The Atlas Elektronik joint venture and Rheinmetall Defence Electronics were searched as they are suspected of paying ¤18m ($24m) in bribes and of avoiding taxes, the prosecutor’s spokesman said. He was confirming a report in German paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
EADS and ThyssenKrupp both confirmed the raid on their unit, which they bought from BAE Systems.
Agencies
