Finland says "no" to Greek debt forgiveness: Finnish PM

Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said on Monday that Finland would not accept a write-off of Greece's debt, but was ready to discuss extending the loan period, reported Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

The incoming Greek SYRIZA party, which won the parliamentary elections on Sunday, promised the Greek citizens it would restructure the country's loans.

However, Finland's position on Greece's debt has not changed, claimed Stubb at a press conference held on Monday.

"We will not extend any debt forgiveness, but we are ready to discuss program extensions and loan period extensions," Stubb was quoted as saying.

"I strongly believe that we can achieve a satisfactory solution," he added.

The prime minister said he did not believed that it was right to make Finnish taxpayers foot the bill for Greece's fiscal stimulus package.

Stubb emphasized that all agreements with the Mediterranean country made to date must be respected and implemented accordingly.

Ignorance of rules was one of the reasons that caused the eurozone crisis, he explained, saying it was very important to abide by all agreements for both financial and currency policy reasons.

The Finnish prime minister hoped the new Greek government would continue the structural reforms, which have already stimulated the Greek economy towards making a recovery.

As a member of the eurozone, Finland has contributed a total of 3.68 billion euros (about 4.14 billion U.S. dollars) in bailout funds to Greece.

Finland is well known for its tough attitude towards bailout programs for heavily indebted eurozone countries, and was the only country in the eurozone to request collateral guarantees for participating in bailouts for Greece and Spain. Endit