1st Ld Writethru: Eurogroup says Greek recovery within eurozone serving its ambition

Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem here on Monday said that the group was glad that the new Greek government's ambition is to realize economic recovery within the Eurozone, and that was exactly the group's ambition.

Dijsselbloem made the remarks at a press conference following the Eurogroup meeting, the first of such meeting in 2015.

"We will support them in their quest for economic recovery of Greece," he said, adding that the Eurogroup congratulated on the swearing in of Greek anti-bailout radical left SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras as prime minister earlier on Monday.

"We look forward to working with them, the way we worked with the previous Greek government," he said.

However, he did not give more details about the future plan on Greek economy.

"We will need a little bit of patience and we also discussed this in the Eurogroup that we must allow the new Greek government to take their positions and give their points of view on how to move forward. Both in finalizing the pending review and any other further support from the Eurozone to Greece," he said.

Dijsselbloem said the Eurogroup had some time to come to this regarding Greece in the next Eurogroup meeting in February.

"We all agree on the outcome we want to achieve: a Greece that is able to stand on its own feet again, a Greece that can grow sustainably and create jobs and prosperity for all of its people, to reduce inequality, a Greece that can repay its debts," said European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs Pierre Moscovici at the press conference.

"What we need to agree upon with the incoming government is not on the ends but maybe on the means, on how to get there," said Moscovici.

He hailed that growth returned in Greece last year, supported by an increase in private consumption and a strong performance of key sectors like tourism and shipping. And people saw an increase in investment in Greece in the third quarter of last year, for the first time since 2008.

"Most importantly, unemployment (in Greece) began to fall, with around 100,000 new jobs being created last year," he said.

Concerning the economic situation in the euro area, Dijsselbloem said to enhance growth potential required decisive action on the part of the member states through growth-friendly fiscal consolidation, respecting the Stability and Growth Pact, investment and growth-enhancing structural reforms.

According to Dijsselbloem, officials also discussed topics including Lithuania's euro changeover and fiscal surveillance issues at the Eurogroup meeting. Endit