Schaeuble: We will be in solidarity as long as Greeks meet their obligations

"As long as Greece will demonstrate the strength to fulfill the requirements of the European Union, we will be in solidarity towards it. Any other attitude would ruin Europe," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said according to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, during the conversation he had with five entrepreneurs, members of the Association of Family Enterprises of the Germany.

Schaeuble appears to comment the tax system in Greece as well, saying that "the creation of a functional, by common standards, tax administration is very difficult, and Greece has yet to accomplish it." This was due to a comment of one of the five entrepreneurs for the non usage of the Lagarde list. "Why did they not use the CD, even if with pressure by the OECD?" Edwin Kohl says and adds that there is a rift in Greek society, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Schaeuble said that "in some respects social inequality in Greece is higher than elsewhere."

The German minister acknowledged that people in Greece suffer, but said the cause is not Berlin or Brussels, but the fact that the decades of failure by the country's elite. "Greece should rediscover itself and we can and want to help, but the reforms will have to be done by the Greeks themselves."