Brussels, 29/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 29 July, the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, said after a meeting with his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras in Athens: “I have no doubts: major mistakes have been made by the EU on Greece, with wrong instruments and techniques, without the right method and timing, which contributed to an involution of the crisis”. The ANSA press agency reports that he feels the mistakes had made the crisis worse. The two politicians agreed, however, that reforms must continue, Samaras adding that growth-stimulus policies were needed. Letta said that there were signs that Greece getting out of crisis “is happening or can happen” and mentioned Italian companies' involvement in the Greek privatisation programme. Letta added that Italy would be announcing its own privatisation programme after the summer break.
Privatisation is Greece's Achilles heel in terms of implementing the Memorandum of Understanding agreement accompanying the financial aid package. The European Commission's monitoring report for July, published on Monday 29 July, says that the privatisation targets have been watered down this year to €1.6 billion from the initial €2.6 billion. In 2014, it is hoped that privatisation will net €3.5 billion.
The report says that the Greek debt trajectory continues along the path set by the Eurogroup. After a new peak in 2013, it is expected to fall in 2014, but the report says this is “assuming that the economic adjustment programme continues to be fully implemented”, and expresses concern about potential political instability. On Friday 26 July, a Commission source said the current coalition government was stable, following the reshuffle after the small Dimar party left in protest at the sudden shut-down of public television chain ERT.
On Monday 29 July, the Bundestag's budgets committee approved the payment of the next batch of aid to Greece, €2.5 billion of it from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and €1.5 billion in returned profits from the SMP bond buy-up programme, cash to be returned by Eurosystem central banks. The IMF is expected on Monday to decide on the payment of €1.8 billion in aid. (EL and FG/transl.fl)