Greece looking for 'solidarity' from Poland

President Karolos Papoulias in Warsaw, Monday: photo - PAP/Rafał Guz

European Central Bank, the EU and IMF agreed to give Greece 2.5 billion euros over the summer with another 500 million in October. The IMF has said it will also stump up another 1.8 billion euros in August.

The Greek government has agreed in return to another round of austerity measures, including a new package of spending cuts, job losses and fiscal reforms.

“Poland experienced a dramatic economic downturn in the 1980s but the crisis left us stronger, which resulted in Poland being able to defend itself against the European finance crisis,” President Bronislaw Komorowski told his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias on Monday at the start of a two-day state visit to Warsaw and Krakow.

"I had the opportunity to inform President Komorowski of the painful economic crisis that my country is experiencing,” President Papoulias said, thanking Komorowski for his offer of 'European solidarity” in tackling the crisis.

Ministers signed cooperation agreements in the cultural, scientific and sporting sectors and President Papoulias had talks with Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk.

The Greek president is in Krakow on Tuesday and will also visit the site of the Auschwitz Nazi German death camp. (pg)

source: PAP