EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Society, Taxation

"The Eurogroup's matters are within the competence of its president. The Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) does not play as important role here as it does in other matters. However, I believe that the current course of affairs is largely a risky game on the Greek government's part. I believe that this last stage of developments – a decision to hold a referendum and their rather odd announcements – demonstrates a not very responsible attitude," the politician told LETA.

"At the same time, we must understand several things – we cannot make further concessions as it could cause a domino effect in other countries. In that case, people in other countries could come to power who believe that they can ignore all the previous agreements, and that others must pay for policies that lack responsibility," the minister told LETA, adding that such attempts to ignore the Eurogroup's rules could cause serious problems for the euro currency.

The minister is hopeful that there are still a couple of days left for Greece to comply with the terms, however, he sees "no way how Latvian taxpayers, the government or parliament could pay as little as one euro for a policy that basically goes against the principles of the Eurogroup and EU".