Brussels, 06/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said on Friday 6 February that a special Eurogroup meeting would be held on Wednesday 11 February ahead of the European Summit to get the ball rolling on the Greek question ahead of the talks by heads of state.
The meeting of national experts at the Council on 5 February reportedly remained very general because the new Greek government has only been in place for a matter of days. The Greek representative reportedly only announced general principles about the policy the new government is planning to follow (tackling tax fraud and corruption and reform of the public sector). The eurozone wants far more meat on the bones. Reuters says Greece even found itself isolated at the technical meeting of national experts.
On Friday, Martin Jager, a spokesman for the German finance ministry, said it was not yet clear exactly what the position of the Greek government was on the questions that had been discussed.
The speech to be made by the Greek finance minister at the country's parliament at the weekend will set the tone of future discussions at EU level. The more constructive a line taken by Tsipras, the more constructive the eurozone may prove, but time is running out. The second Greek bailout comes to an end at the end of February and various national procedures will be required before then, irrespective of what follow-up is decided upon.
At the European Commission, people seem to have understood that the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, will not be asking for any extension to the current bailout (which was extended for two months in December, see EUROPE 11214). Varoufakis said in Berlin on Thursday that he would be requesting a bridging programme until the end of May in order to have a breathing space to decide on a package of proposals for a “new contract” with the eurozone. In The Hague, Dijsselbloem is reported by Bloomberg to have said that the eurozone would not grant any bridging loans. Asked about this, Dijsselbloem's circles toned down his words, saying that first of all, a programme would have to be negotiated.
In the current situation, a precautionary credit line from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) does not seem realistic, unlike a new aid plan. Doubts have been raised about the figure of €10 billion initially mentioned for a credit line. At one point, the option of using a similar amount from the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund that had been earmarked for bailing out Greek banks. Following the flight of capital from Greece in January, Greek banks' balance sheets will be reassessed and a new bailout has not been ruled out.
The Greek question will be discussed at the G20 Finance Summit in Istanbul on 9-10 February, at the Eurogroup meetings on 11 and 16 February and the European Summit on 12 February. (EL)