The results of last month’s eurozone leaders summit on the European debt crisis ‘could have been presented differently’, the finance ministry’s most senior civil servant admitted in a briefing to MPs on Wednesday.

After the summit, prime minister Mark Rutte said in a press statement that the €109bn cost of the second Greek rescue package included €50bn from the banks. Later it emerged this was incorrect, prompting widespread confusion in the Netherlands.
Those who said the prime minister should have made a different comparison ‘have a point’, thesaurier general Hans Vijlbrief said in the briefing note. It would be better to compare the €106bn private sector contribution over the next nine years with the eurozone and IMF contributions of €109bn, he said.
Private sector
Vijlbrief was Rutte’s most senior advisor during the summit, which was not attended by finance ministers. ‘There was major opposition to any private sector involvement when we started, and we think we have made important advances,’ Vijlbrief said.
The Netherlands had made its support of a new rescue package for Greece dependent on the banks getting involved as well.
The finance ministry chief also said it is still unclear how much financial risk the Netherlands runs with the latest Greek aid package.
‘Too many things are still too uncertain,’ he said, including the duration of the loans, interest rates and the exact size of the IMF contribution.