Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico says there’s no way the European Union should back down on its conditions for providing Greece with new funds, according to the Financial Times. “This is a red line for us. It would be impossible to explain to the public that ‘poor’ Slovakia . . . should compensate Greece.” Greece asked for a six-month reprieve on its debts in return for what was described as “major concessions.” However, Germany rejected the request saying that Greece had made no concrete promises of implementing needed reforms. This is hardly surprising seeing as the new government ran on an anti-reform platform. “The [previous] Greek government has agreed to the conditions of financial assistance,” Fico told the FT. “It is not possible that a new government comes and immediately declares that, er, well, we will not respect this.”
