Greece

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, Greece has already missed a payment to the IMF, as everybody knows, and has fallen into arrears with the fund, which is not technically a default. The IMF has said that its shareholders will not suffer losses, saying:

“Notwithstanding the overdue obligations, member countries’ claims on the IMF are fully secure and the IMF will continue to meet its obligations to members and lenders”.

Greece has, of course, an existing IMF programme and it is important that future support for Greece helps it to meet the conditions necessary to continue with that programme, including the agreements of conditionality, sufficient financing assurances and the clearance of any arrears.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)]

My Lords, we cannot do very much because we are not in the euro but there is some way in which we can help. There is a crisis in hospitals in Greece. Equipment is breaking and there is a lack of medicines and equipment for treating ill people. Can we do anything to help on a humanitarian basis?

[Lord O’Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, let me reassure Members of this House that—as I said in my prepared comments and in repeating my right honourable friend the Chancellor’s Statement—we will do whatever is possible to make sure that any tourists or businesses going to Greece get the right guidance and advice. As to the issues on the ground for the Greek people, raised in the noble Lord’s question, we will be looking for further updated guidance over coming days, pending how the discussions go tonight and tomorrow on the financial and economic relationship between Greece and the rest of the eurozone. But, of course, we would all like to think that we will try whatever is within our means to help the Greek people in potentially challenging circumstances if they were to deteriorate further.