MOSCOW (Sputnik) — EU pressure on Greece to sign the third aid package can be explained by Europe's wish to persuade Athens to accept tougher austerity measures, George Delastik a senior political analyst for the Greek business magazine Ethnos, told Sputnik on Friday.
Greece has so far received two aid packages from the troika of international creditors, comprising the European Union, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aimed at addressing the country's massive debt.
Earlier this week, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said that Greece can barely do without the third aid package.
"It is a threat hanging over Greece in order to compel the Greek government to agree to a new memorandum which will be harsher than the previous ones," George Delastik said.
Last month, Athens and the Eurozone finance ministers reached an agreement to extend Greece's bailout for four months to give Athens some extra time to try to re-negotiate a longer-term agreement with its creditors.
Delastik expressed uncertainty whether the aid package would be signed before the deadline and whether Athens would decide to continue its negotiations with the troika of international creditors.
"We do not know whether there would be such a memorandum, and whether it will be negotiated between the Greek government and the European institutions plus the International Monetary Fund during the four months that the agreement Athens has already concluded with the Eurogroup," the analyst said.
"The conditions of the new agreement could be worse than those of the previous two, but I do not consider it possible. If they actually offer tougher measures, the Greek government will not accept it," he said.
According to him, "today Greece is in need of money", and Athens will have to accept the offer already on the table.
At the same time, Vergopoulos admitted that the country could avoid taking a new financial aid package from the EU in the event "Greece declares bankruptcy".
On Thursday, Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said that there was no threat of a default in Greece in the near future, so the country does not need a third aid package and there are no preparations for it.
Greece's current debt is estimated to stand at $270 billion. Meanwhile the country's total government debt amounts to $367 billion, or 170 percent of its GDP.
The country's newly elected government, led by the leftist Syriza party, has vowed to revise Greece's highly unpopular austerity measures, aimed at meeting the bailout conditions set by the troika.
