•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Wroclaw. Police on Saturday cleared barriers to allow 30,000 anti-austerity protesters to target EU finance ministers’ talks, Polish organizers said, forcing officials to scramble for an early getaway.

“The ministers will leave early, because police don’t want to anger the protesters by blocking their right to demonstrate here,” said a local official.

The surprise decision will put an early end to the fractious debt crisis talks in the southwestern Polish city of Wroclaw.

The European Trade Union Confederation and Polish affiliates including Solidarity -- the movement that helped bring down Poland’s communist regime in 1989 -- “will point out to Europe’s political leaders... the need for a change of course,” said a statement demanding “solidarity,” not more austerity.

The two-day talks at Wroclaw’s Centennial Hall conference centre have already seen a clash of ideas between US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Ministers from the 27 European Union states arrived around 8:30 am (0630 GMT) for a brief session taking stock of newly depressed economic growth prospects and financial sector reforms, but were almost all due to be bussed out of the venue within two hours, a Polish official said.

On Friday in Wroclaw, the 17 eurozone states decided to postpone until October a decision on whether to hand over the next tranche of an agreed emergency loan package to Greece -- the eurozone member in the eye of the storm -- worth eight billion euros ($11.0 billion).

With Greece desperately trying to show its austerity drive meets bailout conditions, Athens has warned it will run out of funds by the middle of October, endangering pensions and state salaries while awaiting a breakthrough in the ratification stalemate.

Agence France-Presse