Brussels, 20/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The three-hour meeting - held behind closed doors much to the chagrin of those delegations not invited - to settle the crisis in discussions on Greece ended with a feeling of déjà vu: Greece will have to submit a list of reforms in the coming days and to stick strictly to the letter of the Eurogroup agreement of 20 February (see EUROPE 11259).
The only difference is that a full list has been asked for “more quickly than initially sought”, as French President François Hollande acknowledged. At the same time, the Greeks are pleased that their partners have accepted that it is they who will formulate the reforms.
These are the conclusions reached by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and the presidents of the European Council, Donald Tusk, the ECB, Mario Draghi, the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem at their mini-summit in the night of Thursday to Friday.
The Greek finance minister announced in a press release on Friday morning 20 March that he had learned that technical teams from the ECB, the IMF and the Commission were preparing a detailed list of their needs to allow them to establish the facts with regard to government operations and their plans for the reforms taking place. It would appear that this, in fact, is a questionnaire of some 20 pages with detailed questions that the three institutions are drafting, and not guidelines as some in the media have said.
The statement published after this mini-summit says that all the parties have pledged to speed up work and to conclude it as quickly as possible. It would appear, then, that the feeling of urgency has finally prevailed, after three weeks without progress in technical discussions.
Tsipras informed his partners that nothing would be left in the Greek government's coffers by the start of April, several sources have indicated (by 2 April, according to some in the media). In the press conference, Tsipras adopted a placatory tone: there is no short-term liquidity problem. He also called for calm with the already weakened banks having to cope with massive withdrawals of cash by citizens.
However, agreeing on the specific measures will not be enough to bring the institutions' mission to an end and to allow the release of the final tranches of European aid (€7.2 billion are at stake). The institutions will have to have a full picture of Greece's financial situation, a detailed list of the measures, including the costs and compensation for additional expenditure (like legislation on tackling the humanitarian crisis that has already been adopted) and clarity on the parts of the initial adjustment programme that have to be kept or replaced, along with an institutional evaluation.
The Eurogroup “is ready to meet at any time as soon as necessary to give an assessment of the situation”, said Merkel at the press conference following the mini summit. The date of 27 March was mentioned for the Eurogroup meeting, with release of one tranche, in theory, around Easter, coinciding with the visit of Tsipras to Moscow. If the Eurogroup has nothing definite to discuss, it will not meet, a source stated.
The German chancellor repeated that disbursement of the tranches of aid was dependent on the conclusion of the last mission. Tsipras, who will travel to Berlin on Monday, stated, however, that there had been agreement with his partners that there would be no 5th follow-up mission, and that the commitments made by the previous government were to be disregarded, particularly on the high primary budget surplus target. He said that the budgetary surplus objective this year would take account of the country's economic situation. Merkel, though, made a point of stating that the primary budget surplus had to be on the reforms list expected in the coming days. The scale of the budgetary surplus remains, then, to be negotiated.
Greece also welcomed the acknowledgement by its peers of a humanitarian crisis in the country. Juncker pointed out that an envelope of €2 billion from the structural funds remained available for 2015: this envelope was not to be used to boost the coffers of the Greek state but to support growth efforts. Tsipras tackled Declan Costello, the Commission representative on the institutional trio. “Messrs Schulz and Juncker say that we have to address the humanitarian crisis and, at the same time, a technocrat tells us that it was a mistake to bring the Bill before parliament”, Tsipras said (our translation) referring to the letter sent by Costello during the week (see EUROPE 11277). The Greek prime minister did not see in this Bill any sign of unilateral action on the part of the Greeks. One of the concerns raised by the EU was the cost of the legislation which was higher than Greek assessments.
The mini summit again allowed logistical clarification: political discussions will take place in Brussels, the technical missions will take place in Athens. The ECB would seem to have stressed that the technical teams in Athens must have access to the ministries. (Elodie Lamer with CG/MB/JC)