A decision by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to set a date for disbursement of a 7.7-billion-euro loan tranche to bailout-dependent Greece has been postponed until Friday.
As with previous such “hiccups” in the Greek program, the sluggish implementation “prior actions” by Athens was cited for the delay in funneling the loan cash into Greek state coffers. Roughly the same amount of money to be disbursed will cover expiring maturities of previous bailout loans this month.
At the same time, Wednesday’s ESM board of directors’ meeting again dealt with an obscure but increasingly thorny issue involving three European experts that have found themselves entangled in a Greek legal case. The trio has has been indicted on various breach of trust charges by a mid-level Greek prosecutor, as related to their tenure as consultants for Greece’s privatization fund (HRADF).
The Eurogroup’s finance ministers have demanded an end to the prosecution of the trio.
Additionally, the ESM examined the pace of implementation for various “prior actions”, which the Eurogroup calls “key deliverables”, demanded from the Greek coalition government by the IMF.
The Luxembourg-based inter-governmental body of Euro zone members also called on the Greek side to rapid “resolve pending issues”.
