European Commission rules out Greek debt restructuring

GODOLLO, Apr 9 (AFP): The European Commission ruled out Saturday any restructuring of Greece's public debt, which has exploded to around 340 billion euros ($485 billion). "Yes, we do exclude restructuring," EU Finance Commissioner Olli Rehn said as the bloc's finance ministers wrapped up two days of talks in a Hungarian castle dominated by a deal to bail out Portugal. "We have a solid plan and we are working on the basis of that plan, and it is based on very careful analysis of debt sustainability." The issue re-emerged after German news weekly Der Spiegel said in a report to appear on Monday that eurozone finance ministers discussed such an option in a telephone conference call on April 2 with Rehn and European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet. Seated alongside Rehn at a news conference in Godollo, a suburb to the north of Budapest, Trichet underlined: "We have a plan... and we apply the plan." Athens has repeatedly denied it is seeking to restructure payment volumes and dates. "Restructuring is not an option. It has huge costs and the benefits do not outweigh the costs," its finance minister George Papaconstantinou told AFP this week. "It is not an option, period," he said. The commission also denied such a U-turn this week, although Der Spiegel said a number of ministers expressed doubts during the conference call that Greece could meet a planned start-of-2012 date for a return to commercial money markets.