Athens reacts to Eurogroup suggestion of capital controls

The chairman of the Eurogroup, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, on Tuesday became the first European Union official to suggest the possibility of capital controls to prevent Greece leaving the euro, drawing a furious reaction from Athens, which accused him of ?blackmail.?

?It?s been explored what should happen if a country gets into deep trouble ? that doesn?t immediately have to be an exit scenario,? Bloomberg quoted the head of the eurozone?s finance ministers telling his country?s BNR Nieuwsradio. On Cyprus, he said, ?we had to take radical measures, banks were closed for a while and capital flows within and out of the country were tied to all kinds of conditions, but you can think of all kinds of scenarios.?

Greece is scrambling to pay its obligations as revenues drop and it needs the European Central Bank to allow it to borrow more funds. Its eurozone partners are awaiting the result of an inspection into Greece?s finances and its compliance with the bailout program.

In Athens, the government issued an angry reply. ?It would be useful for everyone and for Mr Dijsselbloem to respect his institutional role in the eurozone,? Gavriil Sakellaridis said. ?We cannot easily understand the reasons that pushed him to make statements that are not fitting to the role he has been entrusted with. Everything else is a fantasy scenario. We find it superfluous to remind him that Greece will not be blackmailed.?