ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
As we’ve just been discussing, Angela Merkel is coming under increasing pressure both amongst G20 leaders and in Germany itself. Peter Altmaier is Chief Whip of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party and joins me from Sky News Centre, a very good morning to you Mr Altmaier.

PETER ALTMAIER:
Good morning

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
Just give me a sense of how concerned Germany as a whole is about the eurozone crisis and the fact that Angela Merkel is now talking about it going on for a decade or more.

PETER ALTMAIER:
Yes, this is a crisis of the eurozone that is really a serious one, it has been accumulated over at least thirty years, it’s a sudden debt crisis and we have to provide on the one hand a short term solution in order to guarantee stability and to control the process but on the other side we need a more sustainable solution for the foreseeable future and that is why we insist on the structural social financial reforms in countries like Greece and Italy.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
The problem with getting to the second part, the structural reforms, is of course the first part doesn’t seem to be working at the moment does it, the short term solution with the turnarounds and all the goings on in Greece.

PETER ALTMAIER:
Well the offer was quite impressive and quite clear, it was created in the last European Council meeting in Brussels one and a half week ago and the offer was solidarity with Greece against structural reforms inside Greece, this was put to a question mark when the Greek Prime Minister announced a referendum earlier last week and this has caused a lot of trouble and uncertainty on markets and amongst people and therefore political leaders are now challenged with the need for reassuring public opinion and reassuring markets about our determination to solve this crisis.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
But are attitudes hardening within Germany with all the attendant political problems for the Chancellor, attitudes hardening which is saying about the Greeks, look we have launched the lifeboat, if you’re not prepared to get upon it then our patience is running very thin?

PETER ALTMAIER:
I wouldn’t say attitudes are hardening but it is a terrifically difficult situation. I mean Germany is guaranteeing 211 billion euro in order to prove solidarity with countries like Portugal, Greece or Italy, that is an awful lot for a country, even a wealthy country as Germany and we have to get it through parliament, we have to convince public opinion in Germany and therefore we need some indications from Greece that the political class in Greece is recognising the need for reform, that the political class is uniting instead of playing the old game of government versus opposition. The situation really is a serious one and this was the message that was passed on to our friends in Athens.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
But of course we know that the political class in Greece is at sixes and sevens, in terms of Germany then the voices that say well we’ve got the design of the euro wrong in the first place, the design of the eurozone, we allowed Greece to get away with not telling us about the scale of its borrowings and the levels of productivity and that now might be the time to lance the boil, that in actual fact if Greece leaves the eurozone, yes it may cause pain but it would be better in the long run and may save that ten years of turmoil that the Chancellor has talked about.

PETER ALTMAIER:
Well we have over all these weeks and months always made it clear that we want to preserve the eurozone with all the 17 member states, that was the intention of all the steps taken on European and international level. However, and this was made clear last week by Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy, in the final stage it depends on Greece what will happen inside Greece and therefore the political class in Athens has to know these are critical hours for Greece. There are difficult talks underway in Athens and we all hope that the Greek political elite will come to a clear sign of national unity.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
And if it goes beyond Greece of course, big discussion about much, much bigger economies in terms of Italy, what’s the view in Germany about how involved the European Central Bank should get?

PETER ALTMAIER:
Well first we made it clear that Greece is a very special case that cannot be compared to any other country in Europe. Second, we have established the European financial support facility, a toolbox that could help us to avoid contingency and to avoid domino effect and third is I believe we are well prepared in case of unexpected events with regard to Italy and other countries, we have extended the scope of the financial support facility, we take private money aboard to solve it. The involvement of the ECB would be something very unusual from a German perspective, it would be contradicting to our stability culture and therefore we are looking for solutions as effective but not so risky with regard to inflation and other undesired effects.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:
Peter Altmaier, thank you very much indeed. Peter Altmaier, the Chief Whip of the Christian Democrats in Germany.

PETER ALTMAIER:
Thank you.