EU leaders press Greek opposition leader to back reforms

(BRUSSELS) - European conservative leaders on Thursday pressed their Greek opposition ally Antonis Samaras to throw his weight behind austerity measures demanded of Athens in exchange for a debt rescue loan.

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said members of the European People's Party "tried to use every possible argument on our colleague Samaras" during tactical talks ahead of a crunch European Union summit on Greece.

"Naturally it is Mr Samaras himself who will decide his stance," Leterme added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the leader of the New Democracy party to "rise to his historic responsibility" by supporting the budget cuts and privatisation programme that the Greek parliament will vote on June 28.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Europe wants to see a broad and long-term commitment in the Greek Parliament.

"Therefore we have of course discussed with Samaras that he needs to be clear that he's part of pushing these measures now that Greece needs," Reinfeldt said ahead of the summit.

He said it was important for every Greek politician to take "responsibility" and "do not tell the Greek people that there is an easy way out of this."

"I'm not saying he's doing that. They have discussions on what kind of mixture you should have regarding the measures needed to be done in Greece. I think we should respect that they need that discussion," he said.

Samaras criticised the austerity plan again on Thursday on the sidelines of the EPP meeting, saying he could not support "more taxes in an economy in unprecedented depression."

"This is creating obvious problems," he said. "We need corrective measures so as to ensure that the Greek economy recovers and pays back its debt."

EU leaders are withholding the next installment of Greece's bailout until the parliament passes the measures. Greece is awaiting 12 billion euros in loans to avoid default in July.