Greece should set up a trustee institution to help privatise state assets, similar to the body that privatised East German companies after the fall of communism, Reuters quoted Eurogroup's Jean-Claude Juncker as saying. Juncker, who chairs meetings of euro zone finance ministers, suggested setting up a Greek version of Germany's so-called Treuhandanstalt agency in an interview with news weekly Der Spiegel, excerpts of which were released on Saturday. "I would welcome it very much if our Greek friends found a privatisation agency independent of the government and modelled after Germany's Treuhandanstalt," Juncker said, adding that such a body should be staffed by international experts. "Henceforth, the European Union will escort Greece's privatisation programme as if we were conducting it ourselves," he said. Proceeds from the programme should be considerably higher than the 50 billion euros Athens has proposed, he added. Greece is under pressure from its creditors to take more fiscal measures and speed up privatisations, after disappointing budget figures for January-April suggested it will miss the deficit targets set under its bailout programme for a second consecutive year in 2011.
