By N. Bellos
"Close, but no cigar" is the phrase that more-or-less sums up Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem's statements immediately after the end of Monday's Eurogroup meeting, where Euro Area finance ministers concluded the session without a firm agreement on the Greek program.
A wobbly Tsipras government has expended a significant amount of "political capital" over the recent period in wagering that the delayed second review of the ongoing bailout program would be finalized on Monday, and that medium-term debt relief measures would be announced and detailed. The latter development is considered as crucial in overcoming IMF objections to rejoining the bailout as a lender.
The next "unofficial date" for concluding the outstanding review is a scheduled June 15 Eurogroup meeting.
Dijsselbloem referred to major progress that led Eurogroup ministers close to an agreement, although the positions of creditors failed to converge on the issue of debt relief measures.
According to the Eurogroup chairman and Dutch finance minister, the main obstacle was the IMF's insistence on greater clarity of proposed debt relief measures, such as an extension of maturities, fixed interest rates and returning ECB and central banks' profits from the Greek bonds in their possession.
According to reports, disagreements centered on the issue of primary budget surpluses after 2022, with the IMF insisting on fiscal targets of under than 2 percent of GDP (on an annual basis). Conversely, the German side favored a primary budget surplus target of 2.6 percent on a yearly basis.
Other reports pointed to agreement on the part of creditors and EZ ministers over the fact that the annual cost for servicing Greece's debt should not exceed 15 percent of annual GDP.
On his part, Dijsselbloem said an upcoming tranche of bailout loans will be disbursed after creditors' confirm that Athens fulfilled no less than 140 prior actions that were included a recent omnibus bill ratified by Parliament.
