The Netherlands said it will not agree to more aid for Greece if the International Monetary Fund does not give Athens a new tranche of loans, adding to worries over a public IMF-EU dispute over euro zone bailouts.
Markets were spooked as European stocks extended losses and safe haven bond futures gained on Thursday after Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of euro zone finance ministers, said the IMF may withhold the next slice of aid to Greece due next month.
Juncker added the IMF expected the European Union to step in if it were unable to release the June aid tranche, but that this would not work as parliaments such as in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands were not prepared to do that.
"We are looking very carefully at what the IMF does ... and if they don't say a new tranche in loans should go the Greeks, then we won't either," Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday in a video placed on website youtube.com.
Rutte added the IMF will only approve more aid if the Greeks fulfil promises, "really deliver" on repayments and bring their state finances under control.
"The second thing ... we only want to lend money in the future if we know for certain that we're going to get our money back and the Greeks have 300 billion euros in airlines, airports, railways and even cement factories -- we want hard collateral," Rutte said in response to questions via Twitter.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager had previously told Reuters that the Dutch parliament would not give its approval to new European Union aid without commitments from Greece enabling it to meet targets set by the IMF.
REUTERS
