Brussels, 18/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Representatives of the troika of lenders (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) had not yet returned to Athens for the second round of talks with the Greek government before the latter made its views clear, saying that no “horizontal” measures would be added to the country's budget for 2014 to convince the country's lenders that Greece's budget will remain on track.
“We cannot accept opinions which seem to undervalue the efforts of the Greek people and the improvement of all economic indicators,” said Greek finance minister Yannis Stournaras on Friday 18 October after a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras.
Greece's draft budget for 2014 was submitted to the country's parliament on 7 October, but the troika are sceptical, saying that measures totalling up an extra €2 billion would be needed to make the budget credible in the light of the budget targets.
The troika's return date has not yet been set, but any delays in the assessment mission would lead to a de facto delay in payment of the next batches of aid promised by the eurozone and IMF for the last quarter of the year. The latest version of the European Commission's timeline (dated July 2013) shows that €1.8 billion from the IMF and €3.1 billion from the eurozone are at stake. In addition, Greece is waiting for €1 billion from the European Financial Stability Fund and central banks in the Eurosystem, but this requires the approval of national experts at the Council of Ministers once four prior actions have been introduced, including privatisation and scaling back the civil service. On Friday, Stournaras held a meeting with Thomas Wieser, chair of the euro working group. (EL/transl.fl)