Slovak PM wants Greece to act before borrowing

(BRATISLAVA) - Slovakia will not consider providing rescue money to Greece unless the struggling country starts cutting its welfare spending, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday.

"We can't give Greece any loan before we see them doing their homework," Fico told reporters.

The eurozone, which Slovakia joined as the last member in 2009, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) endorsed on Sunday an unprecedented 110-billion-euro (145-billion-dollar) bailout to save Greece from bankruptcy.

Slovakia's share in the loan will exceed 800 million euros, said the country's finance ministry.

In exchange, Athens vowed a series of budget cuts and tax increases with the aim of slashing the public deficit to less than three percent of output by 2014, from 13.6 percent last year.

"Any decision on an aid package must follow an actual decision taken by the Greek parliament to cut back welfare benefits which the country can't afford," Fico said.

"Personally, I don't believe that the Greek parliament will be able to approve the restrictions passed by the government yesterday," he added.

Fico said the Slovak loan would only be approved by the next government that will emerge from the parliamentary election scheduled for June 12.

He added a Greek default would endanger savings in Slovak banks, and that "nobody cares about Greece, we're fighting for the euro now."

"The situation in the eurozone is very serious, we don't think that everything can be solved by providing one country with a loan," said Fico.

Slovakia has recently seen several parties opposing a possible aid package for Greece.

The biggest opposition party, the liberal SDKU, said on Monday it would try to block the loan at an extraordinary parliament session, while the junior-coalition nationalist SNS party said it was against the loan as well.