Brussels, 10/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - Athens has just started its six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, but is still pursuing its own objectives and is planning to make 2014 not only the year of a successful Greek Presidency but also a turning point for the economy in three areas - returning to the money markets, redistribution of the budget surplus expected to have been made in 2013 and a further reduction in the debt burden. Greek politicians spoke on all three points in Athens on Friday 10 January.
In the second half of this year, Greece is planning to return to autonomous financing, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told reporters in Athens on Friday 10 January at a press conference on the start of the Greek Presidency. The country already issues very short-term bonds to cover regular finance needs, but the programme drawn up with the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) provides for a partial return to the markets only in 2015, as the Commission explains in a document sent in December in response to the European Parliament's investigation into the troika's work and published by the Commission on Wednesday (see separate article). The report notes: “The expectation is that market access for Greece could partly resume from 2015”. The Commission says that this is not meant as a public contradiction of the Greek plans, but simply states the aims of the aid programme. The interest rates will decide whether Greece is ready to return to the markets, and it is for the Greek debt management agency to decide.
Samaras told the media that there was agreement with the troika on use of the primary budget surplus, expected to be around half a billion euro and to be confirmed by Eurostat in April. Decisions will not be taken until Eurostat has confirmed the size of the surplus. Just as Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told this newsletter in an interview in May last year (see EUROPE 10847), Samaras said on Friday that it should be possible to redistribute 70% of the surplus to the inhabitants of Greece, and use the remaining 30% to service the debt, as long as strict budget targets are met. Samaras said that the people who had suffered the most from the crisis, like the unemployed and the poorest pensioners, would receive some of the money. The Commission said in June that it agreed with the idea as long as it did not endanger the budget targets, but it would have to be discussed when Eurostat has decided on the size of the surplus (see EUROPE 10847).
Eurostat's intervention may also give rise to talks on reducing the Greek debt burden. Stournaras spoke on this in an interview in the Financial Times on Thursday 9 January in which he said that the IMF representative at the troika, Poul Thomsen, and the director general of the IMF said this must be done by simply writing off some of the debt. “Poul and Lagarde said I had to [stand] by their side”, “I said: 'OK, but if I come by your side, it is what would really help Greece, but it's something which is totally out of the question'. Schäuble told me: 'Yannis, forget it'. So it cannot be done, so what can I do?' He criticised the “maximalist” approach taken by the troika in the talks. Stournaras pointed out that the government had a very slender majority (three seats in parliament) and that this meant that some things were simply not possible. On Friday morning, the Greek PM reassured the press about the strength of the coalition government. (EL and CG/transl.fl)