Finance minister Jan Kees de Jager does not think it realistic to expect the banks to voluntarily contribute to the Greek rescue effort and says they should be pressured to do so, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday.

The fact that credit ratings agencies may lower their rating for Greece as a consequence is acceptable risk, the paper quotes the minister as saying.
The minister made his comments during a meeting with his British counterpart George Osborne in London. Britain is not part of the eurozone and on the sidelines of the rescue mission.
The EU is trying to raise €85bn to bail out Greece, a considerable part of which should come from the private sector. But the European central bank has already warned that a compulsory contribution will lead to a reduced credit rating for Greece, and unsettle the financial markets.
The Netherlands and Germany are among the biggest supporters of private sector involvement in the second support round.
Little sympathy

According to the Guardian, De Jager also ‘showed little sympathy for the plight of Greece’.
‘Contagion risks are not best handled by bailout funds, or by being soft on each other, but by taking strong measures,’ the paper quoted him as saying. ‘The size of the government needs to decrease in these countries.’
He denied that would mean abandoning the cherished European social model. ‘These economies could be European in the traditional sense, but without the rigid labour markets and rigid monopolistic structures that go with it, especially in the southern European countries. They have to be torn down.’
De Jager also restated his view that the European commission’s demand for an increase in its budget was unacceptable. The Dutch parliament has called for the EU budget to be frozen in cash terms.