Audit: Dutch likely to lose money lent to Greece

By Demid Getik on June 1, 2015 - 18:10
Greece protest
"Money for Education and Health, not for banks, ministries, debt," a sign reads at a Greek austerity protest. Nov. 6, 2014 (photo: Dionysis Kouris/Flickr). ("Money for Education and Health, not for banks, ministries, debt," a sign reads at a Greek austerity protest. Nov. 6, 2014 (photo: Dionysis Kouris/Flickr))

The Dutch taxpayers will probably not recover any of the money used for Greece's financial rescue, said Kees Vendrik, chairman of the Court of Audit in the Netherlands. Dutch people should be realistic about repayment given the current situation, Vendrik told on a television program Radar Extra.

"As it now stands, I have to be honest, it's going to be very difficult," Vendrik said. In 2010, the former Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager expressed full confidence in Greece repaying the money with interst that the Netherlands lent.

Greece received emergency assistance twice. The country received 110 billion euros in 2010 and 130 billion in 2012. The Dutch contribution to the amount was 11.9 billion, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

Last year, Vendrik was chairman of the Dutch delegation that participated in an international program to support Greek investigators. In that role, he offered his Greeks colleagues assistance in audits there. Vendrik did not research the financial situation in Greece, but he understands the situation in which the country now finds itself, a spokesman for the organization said.

 

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