Brussels, 24/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 24 July, Greece had only one of its “prior actions” left to accomplish for its lenders to give the go-ahead for payment of €2.5 billion in aid from the European financial stability facility (EFSF).
The Council of Ministers met the same day, and noted that the prior action relating to the civil service mobility scheme for tens of thousands of Greek civil servants due to join it by September, had not yet been introduced.
The Greek parliament is expected to take action on Thursday evening so that the eurozone can examine the Greek programme in a videoconference on Friday 26 July. The eurozone is expected to decide at the meeting in favour of disbursement. Payment would, however, not be forthcoming until a number of countries' parliaments have given their go-ahead and fears about delays in payment were raised on Tuesday evening when the German Bundestag budgets committee delayed its vote, awaiting further details from the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund). According to a letter from Deputy German Finance Minister Steffen Kampeter sent to German parliamentarians on the budget committee, the government decided to postpone until 29 July a vote on the Greek aid initially scheduled for Wednesday because Greece has only implemented 17 of the 22 prior actions laid down as a precondition for payment of the current sub-batch of aid.
On Monday 29 July, the IMF will decide on whether to pay its own next batch of aid, €1.8 billon. In July, in addition to the €2.5 billion from the EFSF, central banks in the Eurosystem are expected to repay €1.5 billion in profits they have made from the SMP public bond purchase scheme. The eurozone decided earlier this month the €1.5 billion would be handed over at the same time as the next payment from the EFSF (see EUROPE 10884). (EL/transl.fl)