Brussels, 18/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The talks at the Eurogroup on 17 February and the assurances by Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras have enabled Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn to announce that the troika of lenders (European Commission, ECB and IMF) will be returning to Athens later this week with the aim of completing the fourth monitoring mission at some point in March.
The head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said: “It's a positive step that the troika is going back but lots of work to be done”. He said that, once the mission was over, there would be €10.1 billion left of the EFSF funding for Greece. EFSF Director General Klaus Regling said that the EFSF was prepared to disburse a new aid instalment. Dijsselbloem said that that the “programme runs until the end of the year, no urgent reason to discuss the future or any follow up. If and when present review, there could be further disbursement of a total of €10.1 bn, which will finance Greece for a number of months” but he could not say exactly how many. Olli Rehn said: “I would have preferred to settle the issue of financing 2014 at the latest in December, but unfortunately that was not possible, not enough progress as regards eco reforms and discussions on fiscal issues in Athens, that's discussions on fiscal issues in Athens and that's why we need to focus on conclusion of the current review”. Dijsselbloem said that in March it would be possible to solve the debt question and a possible new aid programme.
On the talks with the Greek authorities, Rehn said: “While there remain a number of open issues, there has been some encouraging progress in recent days. On the fiscal side, it appears that the outcome for 2013 may be better than expected, though we must reserve our final judgment until Eurostat publishes its validated data on 23 April. Discussions regarding the fiscal gap for 2014 and 2015 are ongoing. Moreover, it is imperative that the authorities take forward the many structural reforms under discussion”. (EL/transl.fl)