Press attention cancels Fri. meeting of 'Washington Group' on possible Greek debt relief

By N. Bellos

Press "leaks" apparently tanked Friday's meeting in Berlin of the informal "Washington Group", which by all accounts was to have focused on the timely issue of Greek debt relief and finding common ground on the Greek program with the IMF.

The group is comprised of representatives of the Eurozone's four members with biggest economies -- Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands -- the IMF, other Eurozone officials and the ECB.

According to reports, short-term measures and even medium-term measures were to be discussed, despite repeated statements by German's finance ministry leadership this month that debt relief is unnecessary before 2018.

According to a Community source in Brussels, the meeting was scheduled and set to proceed as planned, however, the increased publicity it attracted after first being mentioned by the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung necessitated its cancellation.

The Washington Group first met in 2011 at the height of the Greek economic crisis.
Besides the finance ministers from the four member-states -- Schaeuble, Sapin, Padoan and Dijsselbloem -- EU Commission Pierre Moscovici and ECB executive board member Benoît Cœuré and an IMF representative were due to participate.

With the development, the two main dates for developments regarding the Greek program's remain the EWG meeting on Nov. 28 and the subsequent Eurogroup meeting on Dec. 5.

Athens is looking to conclude the second review of the Greek program (third bailout) despite a handful of major issues remaining unresolved as of Thursday, as well as to persuade European creditors to agree on even short-term debt relief measures.

The latter would give the embattled leftist Greek government an opportunity to point to a much-needed political success, and encourage the IMF to rejoin the program as a lender.