Greek finance minister slates EU over response to debt crisis

Europe is unable to find a timely solution for its debt problem, Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Thursday. "Europe should admit that it is not able to act quickly and reliably," Venizelos told parliament, and appealed for MPs to vote for new spending cuts. Greece, whose debt is expected to reach 360 billion euros this year, must further reduce wages and pensions as a condition for release of an 8 billion euro tranche out of a 100 billion euro bailout from the troika of international lenders comprising the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund. Late on Wednesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Germany to try to forge an agreement on how to tackle the debt with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of a Sunday's European leaders' summit, but said afterwards the effort was wasted. Venizelos said no 'miracles' should be expected from this summit. "There is no magic solution that could be pulled out of Merkel's or Sarkozy's hat," he said.