Luxembourg, 20/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - After the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 19 June, Greece received criticism for delays in fulfilling the milestones and the resignation of the secretary general for public revenue.
The new Greek finance minister, Gikas Hardouvelis, explained that he would need to see how to pursue the reforms needed for the disbursement of the next batch of aid, and the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, is reported by one delegation to have told him that what matters “is not how to do it, but that you do it”. Greek sources did not confirm this, but said: “Everybody was sympathetic towards the new finance minister” who, as he pointed out at the meeting, had taken office less than a week before.
At a press conference, Dijsselbloem did not mince his words, hammering home that Greece has to meet its commitments. When International Monetary Fund Director General Christine Lagarde, said that the eurozone had given assurances about continuing to finance Greece, Dijsselbloem chipped in: “It takes Greece to fulfil its commitments”. He took the same attitude when talking about negotiations to reduce the Greek debt burden. Dijsselbloem said there were three strings attached to that and paraphrased the November 2012 Eurogroup statement: making a primary surplus (which has now been done), the troika of lenders (European Commission, ECB and IMF) will then look at whether debt reduction is required during their next monitoring mission. Greece has to meet its commitments under the economic adjustment programme, but “at the current stage, this is not the case,” said Dijsselbloem.
Greece is late applying six milestones required for the disbursement of €1 billion of aid and for which the deadline was 31 May. One reason for the delays is the cabinet reshuffle. The new finance minister told his counterparts that he aimed to conclude the first set of milestones by the end of June.
Hardouvelis told his colleagues that the process for choosing a successor to the public revenue secretary would be open and transparent. Eurogroup fears that ministers are trying to take control of the semi-autonomous public revenue body. (EL)