Brussels, 02/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 July, the European Commission denied suggestions that the Greek government had been given any sort of ultimatum by the representatives of the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund), who have just returned to Athens.
Reuters says that Greece was given until Friday 6 July to come up with results in its aid programme, failing which the next instalment of financial aid would be suspended until the end of the summer or the IMF might withdraw from the aid programme altogether.
Simon O'Connor, a spokesman for Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn, said that the only thing that was true was that, if the Eurogroup is to take a decision or reach agreement in principle on Monday 8 July, then it is clear that talks will have to be concluded beforehand. He expressed astonishment at the fuss generated by the Reuters report, adding that no particular deadline had been set.
At their latest meeting in Luxembourg at end of last month, eurozone finance ministers urged Greece to pull out the stops to ensure that the troika fact-finding mission can be completed before the next Eurogroup meeting so that they can decide on payment of the next batch of aid in time for national parliaments to endorse it before the summer break (see EUROPE 10872).
O'Connor said about the idea of splitting the aid into three separate instalments that he didn't see why people talked about it as if it were a brand new idea because it's been done for the past six months! Each instalment is disbursed in separate sub-sections as the various monthly requirements are achieved.
The Greek government has to meet a repayment deadline in August for €2.2 billion-worth of bonds. Greek media say that total agreement was reached on Tuesday on healthcare, where the troika is calling for reforms, an agreement with the Greek health minister, Adonis Georgiadis, that doesn't include any new cuts.
At the end of June, the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that reaching agreement in July would make it possible for the programme to be fully funded for another year, as long as the troika makes a positive assessment in its fact-finding mission in July. Newspapers including the Financial Times say that a budget shortfall of nearly €4 billion will emerge in the programme's financing, which could lead to the IMF withdrawing, despite its official denial of such rumours.
Greece seems to have got over the political crisis that arose with closure of public television channel ERT, after which the Dimar party left the government coalition. The Greek media say that two former New Democracy parliamentarians have re-joined the party, bringing the governing coalition to 155 seats in the 300-seat parliament. (EL/transl.fl)