By N. Bellos
The EuroWorking Group will directly focus on Athens’ recent progress to implement 15 “prior actions” demanded by institutional creditors, during a meeting in the Belgian capital later on Thursday.
Implementing the “prior actions” is viewed as a necessary condition for freeing up a 2.8-billion-euro sub-tranche of bailout loans to the Greek state, money left over from the first tranche allocated in the spring.
According to the latest reports, no decisions will be taken at Thursday’s meeting, despite the significant progress shown by the Greek side this month, especially Parliament ratification of a bill that included many of the measures, which occurred this week.
On his part, Greek FinMin Euclid Tsakalotos, speaking in Luxembourg on Wednesday, said three “prior actions” remain to be implemented, ones not included in the passed omnibus legislation. He promised that the pending issues will close over the next few days, including a restructuring of the Civil Aviation Authority in the country and a liberalization of the entire aviation framework.
Tsakalotos also said the Greek side is certain that all pending issues will be resolved before an Oct. 10 Eurogroup meeting, although Athens must accelerate its legislative initiatives ahead of next week’s IIMF summit in Washington, given that most European finance ministers and top Eurozone officials will attend the event.
