Brussels, 12/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - A second Eurogroup meeting might take place later this week, explained several eurozone finance ministers on Monday 12 November 2012 upon arrival in Brussels. At t heir second meeting, possibly on Wednesday or Thursday, the 17 members would decide on disbursement of the next aid instalment to Greece, €31.5 billion, which the country needs to pay its debts as it will run out of cash on 16 November 2012. Even if the ministers say “yes” this week, the country would not get the money immediately because German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble pointed out that the German Bundestag must give its go-ahead to the decision by the eurozone, and the European Commission admitted that the approval procedure by the national parliaments could take weeks.
On Monday evening, eurozone finance ministers are expected to look at how Greece could pay its debts later this week. Some €5 billion of bonds held by the ECB will mature on 16 November. Postponing the maturity date would be one way of dealing with it, suggested Marianne Kothe, a spokeswoman for Schaüble, in Berlin on Monday. The Greek debt agency is planning to issue short-term bonds to bridge the gap while awaiting the disbursement of the next batch of aid.
Pierre Moscovici of France hoped a “political decision” would be taken at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday but, upon arrival in Brussels, the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, ruled out any rapid solution an dcalled for a genuine, long-term, solution to be found.
The eurozone discussions will focus on reports by the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund), which the head of Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, said was fundamentally positive on the work by the Greek government to get the structural adjustment programme back on track. He said he had received a report from the troika in the night of Sunday to Monday. He said Greece had kept its promises and it was now for the Eurogroup to keep its own promises, but before hand, they needed clarification on the viability of the Greek debt.
The troika has been asked to report on exactly that, the viability of the Greek debt and the country's future financing needs. Athens' request for two more years to meet its budget targets seems to have been agreed upon. On this, Austria's Finance Minister Maria Fekter warned that more time meant more money. The troika report, quoted by Bloomberg, says €32.6 billion more euro would be needed if the country were given two more years. Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said that one of the issues that the eurozone had not yet reached agreement upon was how exactly the hold in the Greek budget was to be filled.
The European Commission commented that it “welcomed the adoption last night by the Greek parliament of the budget for 2013, which is clearly a key condition to move closer to the next disbursement”. (MB/transl.fl)