Brussels, 05/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Eurogroup will meet twice on Monday 8 December.
On Monday morning, Eurogroup will examine the draft budgets for 2015 of sixteen countries (all the eurozone nations bar Greece and Cyprus) based on the European Commission's opinions on the budgets issued at the end of November (see EUROPE 11207). The Commission says the draft 2015 budgets of five member states (Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovakia) seem to abide by the Stability and Growth Pact. The draft budgets of four countries (Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Finland) comply with EU budget rules, but the budgets of seven other countries (Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Austria and Portugal) run the risk of breaching the Stability and Growth Pact provisions.
The budget plans of France, Italy and Belgium will be the main area of discussion, predicted a high-ranking European official, saying that the three countries will explain how they are planning to comply with the EU budget rules in the three months the Commission has granted them to this end (see EUROPE 11209). The other countries will apply peer pressure to encourage them to pursue the reform process.
Greece. At this stage, Greece has not yet asked for an extension of its bailout programme, but it is highly likely that the ministers will discuss this issue on Monday afternoon in order to allow the parliaments of the countries that have to endorse such matters the time to allow an extension of the programme before the bailout comes to an end. The duration of the extension is not yet known, but several sources say it is likely to last for several months, although the Greek deputy prime minister denied this on Friday. He said he was confident that agreement would be reached by Christmas and promised that there would not be any further austerity measures. Once the programme has ended, the eurozone may decide on follow-up measures for exiting the programme. A diplomat confirmed on Friday that Greece had come round to the idea that the IMF will be involved in these follow-up arrangements. (EL)