Brussels, 23/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, is confident that Greece and its creditors have made “significant” progress in their negotiations on the list of reforms to be applied by the Greek government in exchange for being kept on European financial life support.
“We are closer (to an agreement) than we were previously. I am very optimistic”, he said on Thursday 23 April, after an extraordinary European summit given over to the challenge of migration in the Mediterranean (see other article).
Before the summit began, Tsipras met the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Following this meeting, the German leader referred to “constructive” discussions, but which both sides had agreed should remain confidential. “We have to do all in our power to prevent a default” on the part of Greece, she stressed. According to the daily newspaper Ekathimerini, the leaders of Germany and Greece are reported to have reached an agreement on reducing the initial requirements upon Athens in terms of primary budgetary surpluses (not including servicing of the debt), with a target ranging between 1.2% and 1.5% of GDP.
The French President, François Hollande, who also met the Greek prime minister on the sidelines of the summit, said that Greece should “continue to supply information”. I also reminded Tsipras that Greece had “decisions to make”, he added, in reference to the list of reforms Greece is negotiating with its creditors in the framework of the second bailout plan.
Speaking from Riga on Thursday evening, the French finance minister, Michel Sapin, appealed to Greece for “precise, serious and detailed” discussions on this list of reforms at the Eurogroup meeting to be held in Riga this Friday (see other article). (Mathieu Bion with JC and EH)