The next few days are crucial for achieving an agreement at the June 15 Eurogroup meeting regarding the Greek program, with contacts and deliberations ongoing at the highest political level in order to bridge differences as much as possible before the session.
The next few days are crucial for achieving an agreement at the June 15 Eurogroup meeting regarding the Greek program, with contacts and deliberations ongoing at the highest political level in order to bridge differences as much as possible before the session.
At the same time, sources in Brussels on Tuesday lamented the leaks, on the part of the Greek government, of essentially referring the entire issue to European leaders, i.e. an extraordinary summit or EU Council venue.
Hints of a “summit” are eerily reminiscent of the summer of 2015, when failed negotiations fixated Europe and ultimately led to current Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calling for referendum on creditors’ terms at the time. Capital controls preceded the utterly controversial and divisive July 5 referendum and a snap election was held after Tsipras signed and delivered the third memorandum to Parliament in August 2015.
The mood in Brussels, on Tuesday, was that any references to a summit or EU Council are futile, given that European leaders will again place the Greek issue at the Eurogroup venue.
Athens also quickly and publicly dismissed Tuesday’s report by “Bild”, which claimed the Greek side would forego a loan tranche if debt relief isn’t extended, although the press report nevertheless eyebrows in Brussels.
The overall loan tranche, exceeding 10 billion euros for 2017, remains stalled because the second review of the Greek program has still not been concluded. However, the June 15 Eurogroup meeting will, by all accounts, finally provide the “green light”. The new loan would ostensibly be used to cover maturity debt due for repayment in July 2017, roughly seven billion euros.
What Bild’s report insinuated was that the leftist-rightist government could miss the July repayment and flirt with the prospect of “default” as a way of pressuring creditors.
Another scenario being circulated in the Greek capital over the recent period is that Athens has accumulated a “nest egg” from holding back on payments to the private sector and again staking pension funds’ reserves. As such, it would cover the July loan repayment with its own cash.
In addressing the European Parliament on Tuesday, EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici again expressed his optimism over an agreement at the June 15 Eurogroup meeting – the latest and essentially last “unofficial deadline” on the agenda for getting the Greek bailout program on track before debt repayment deadlines and jump-starting the still recession-bound economy.