Lithuanian president and finance minister off to Brussels for Greek debt summit

“We regret at the results of the Greek referendum. They are raising concern for us and fueling the political and economic uncertainty about the situation. We will be waiting for specific proposals from the Greek side,” Šadžius told BNS on Monday.

The Greek vote against reforms proposed by the country’s creditors has further complicated the situation, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said on Sunday.

The final figures, announced on Monday, show that 61.31 percent of Greeks voted against reforms and austerity measures demanded by the EU and IMF in a referendum on Sunday.

The Lithuanian president’s adviser Rasa Svetikaitė said on Monday that European leaders should not yield to the “populist blackmail” of the Greek government.

“The president is going to an emergency European summit to discuss possibilities to help the Greek people. It doesn’t mean, in any way, that European leaders should yield to the populist blackmail we now hear. The EU and eurozone are communities of the rule of law and not a commonwealth of free lunch. The Greeks must also respect other EU and eurozone citizens, see and realize that they were capable of tightening their belts during the recession and ensuring economic recovery and further growth by means of reforms,” Svetikaitė told the Žinių Radijas news radio on Tuesday morning.

Commenting on the results of the Greek referendum, she said that they “have not improved but considerably worsened the situation.”