Prime minister Mark Rutte has apologised to parliament for the confusion surrounding the size of the new eurozone rescue package for Greece.

The prime minister told reporters after a special cabinet meeting on Friday that he had used a different ‘approach’ when announcing the size of the deal after the eurozone leaders’ meeting in July.
After that gathering, Rutte said the package was worth €109bn, of which €50bn would come from the private sector. However, other EU leaders said the deal involved €159bn, including the contribution from the banks.
2014
‘In retrospect it would have been better if I had chosen another approach,’ Rutte said. The European Commission was looking at the situation up to 2014, while he had used 2020 as the cut off, the prime minister said.
In future, there should be better agreement on the way the results of summits are made public, Rutte said.
MPs will discuss the eurozone debt crisis at at emergency debate next week.
Leadership
Meanwhile, deputy prime minister Maxime Verhagen has criticised opposition party leaders for accusing the prime minister of showing too little leadership during the crisis.
The situation in the Netherlands is very different from that in France and Britain, where the prime ministers have cut short their holidays to deal with a crisis, Verhagen said.
Among the critics is Liberal democrat leader Alexander Pechtold, who has called on the prime minister to show he is in control.