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Days after signing the bilateral agreement between Greece and Finland for guarantees against the participation of the Nordic country in the second rescue plan for Greece, it became a precedent that could have negative consequences for the launch of financial aid. In Vienna, the Minister of Finance of Austria Maria Fekter told journalists that the desire for guarantees of the euro area states should be linked to the involvement of the private sector of the respective country in the financial rescue of Greece.

"What Finland wants, means that the other countries will have to participate with more capital to provide guarantees to Finland. This is unacceptable to Austria, which should be treated equally with the other countries," are the exact words of Maria Fekter. She said that if all countries start to insist on guarantees the rescue plan would never happen. "For this reason, I suggest that the guarantees should be linked to the private sector. Austrian banks and insurance companies have a limited number of Greek government bonds and therefore we should get guarantees. Countries that have bought many Greek bonds should provide these guarantees," she offers. This is Austria’s finance minister response to the attempt of Finland to secure alone cash guarantees for the loan, which it will grant Greece. Netherlands and Slovakia asked yesterday for such guarantees for the loans they have to grant the bankrupt Athens. In Brussels, the spokesman for the Finance Commissioner Olli Rehn urged today the euro zone countries not to make further requests for guarantees because the troubled Mediterranean country will pay its loans ever. "The euro zone governments are responsible to decide whether the bilateral agreement between Athens and Helsinki contradicts with the decisions made during the summit on July 21. The signed document says that bilateral agreements on guarantees will be signed "where necessary", says Amadeus Altafaz.

According to the Greek Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos, the bilateral agreement should not surprise anyone, as its necessity is contained in the minutes of the summit on July 21. "The minutes also contain the response of those countries which have then said that if the document is signed with Finland, they would insist on such guarantees too," he said. According to Venizelos, it is important the euro area governments to ratify the austerity plan for Greece one by one, which he expects will take a year. However, the bilateral agreement was inevitable, because Helsinki would not agree to participate in the bailout without it.

The arrangement with Finland caused violent domestic responses in Greece too. The opposition New Democracy’s spokesman George Mihelakis described the activities of the socialist government as "amateur." He said Evangelos Venizelos had asked the President of New Democracy to intervene and talk with the Finnish Prime Minister, who is also a member of the European People's Party. The President of the far-right party LAOS George Karatzeferis was even more explicit in his assessments and accused the PASOK government that it only undermines the bailout for Greece with the bilateral agreement and actually takes Europe to disintegration.

On this political background, the Athens Stock Exchange continued to collapse and its index reached another historical low of 958 points. Undisturbed, the spread-index of the Greek securities flew up to 1449 bps.