"Our stance is very clear and the solution to temporarily finance Greece should be found amongst members of the euro area. We did not participate in the negotiations or any decision making. The commission just said that that was one of the options and we will see what proposals will be laid out on the table but our stance is that a mechanism within the euro area should be found," said Lalovac who is attending a meeting of EU finance ministers where the main topic of discussion is Greece's temporary financing.
Greece requires urgent money even before negotiations are completed on a third programme of financial assistance which haven't even started and at best could be concluded by mid August.
Greece needs 12 billion euros within the next month, seven billion of which is required by July 20 and an additional 5 billion by August 5.
Several ideas have been put forward. The European Commission mentioned the idea of re-activating the EFSM, a fund set up in May 2010 and guaranteed by all member states. That fund was used to bail out Ireland and Portugal and allegedly still has a balance of 13 billion euro, three billion of which could be used to temporarily finance Greece. Most countries outside the eurozone though are opposed to that idea.
Asked to what extent Croatia would be exposed if that proposal was accepted, Lalovac said that "some projections had been made," according to which around 50 million euro would be required as collateral, adding however, that this amount would not come out directly from the budget.