Brussels, 17/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission sees the Eurogroup meeting of 11 May as the time when decisions will be taken on Greece, since hopes of agreement being reached ahead of the Eurogroup meeting on 24 April are fading fast as a result of lack of progress.
Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told the Financial Times: “We've got two meetings which are important. The April 24 meeting in Riga must not be a wasted moment; it must be a useful moment in which we see concrete progress in catching up with those reforms, and then the next meeting on May 11, which certainly must be decisive.”
In May, Greece has two repayments to make to the IMF, €200 million on 1 May and €750 million on 12 May, the day after the Eurogroup meeting. Greece's attempts to reschedule its loans were reported to have been rejected by the IMF, but this was denied by the Greek finance minister. Large sums become due during the summer and the IMF says agreement needs to be reached before the summer break. The Eurogroup meeting on 24 April will simply be updated on progress.
Only Greece now believes agreement on the required list of reforms is possible by the end of the month. “Despite the cacophony and erratic leaks and statements in recent days from the other side, I remain firmly optimistic that there will be an agreement by the end of the month,” said Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras according to Reuters. He explained that the talks were in the doldrums over pensions and labour market reforms, a rise in VAT and privatisation. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said in Washington that Greece was prepared to make compromises but not to compromise itself. The IMF has denied calling for Greek pensions to be slashed, but says the pensions system needs to be reformed.
The 'Brussels group' (the Greek government, European Commission, IMF, ECB and EFSF) will meet over the weekend, explained the European Commission on Friday. Poul Thomsen, IMF director for Europe, told Bloomberg that the parties were in talks about “adjusting” the programme.
The press talks of a number of possible solutions, such as a referendum in Greece on introducing capital controls, a reshuffling of the coalition government headed by Tsipras to get more pro-Europeans on board, and if the worst came to the worst, exiting the eurozone.
Like Germany the day before, the Commission brushed aside the worst case scenario. In Washington, Moscovici told AFP that there weren't any “soft” preparations for a Grexit or a Plan B. After meeting Varoufakis on Thursday, the US president, Barack Obama, called on both sides to be flexible in the negotiations in order to avoid any financial accidents. Varoufakis is also due to meet Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank. (Elodie Lamer)