Riga, 24/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Making no attempts to hide its disappointment at the meagre results presented to it by the 'institutions' (European Commission, ECB and iMF) and Greece, the Eurogroup meeting said the way the talks were carried out needed to change: “The process needs to become more efficient and effective, we'll be looking at that,” explained the head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, at a press conference in Riga on Friday 24 April.
To nip in the bud any desire for a return of the troika, the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, immediately laid down Greece's red lines. He pointed out the animosity that was palpable in Athens when the troika arrived there. “We are not going to go back to that, but we are open to suggestions,” he said.
Eurogroup wants an end of the dispersion of talks, that some of its members say should be centralised in Athens. The three institutions are reported to be on the same page about the idea of the talks taking place in Athens. The Commission, however, seems to understand the political problems that this would cause for the Greek government.
Disagreement on the basics. The parties are said to disagree over the basics. Dijsselbloem said that full agreement on the monitoring mission was required before the next aid instalment can be paid out, saying that first and foremost, agreement would be in the interest of Greece itself.
Yanis Varoufakis said they were asking the Greek government to do the impossible and conclude a monitoring mission in four months that the previous government hadn't been able to do in a longer time period. He repeated his initial idea of working to conclude the mission with representatives of the lenders in Athens while agreeing on four or five major reforms and partial disbursements in order to avoid cash flow problems. Asked about the option of a partial disbursement, the head of Eurogroup said he could answer that in one word - no. The Greek minister said that Greece was currently meeting its financial commitments (mostly loan repayments) with its own cash reserves without needing to borrow much.
In the event of agreement, Eurogroup is prepared to hold a special meeting. Dijsselbloem said that no special Eurogroup meetings were pencilled in at the moment, but time was of the essence and his diary was flexible. Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that limited progress and not enough of it had been made and things must speed up, adding that there was not much now in the way of disagreement standing in the way of an agreement.
The Greek minister went into more detail about the sticking points in the negotiations, such as pension reforms, which the IMF is insisting upon and for which the reform plans are found to be lacking. Varoufakis also mentioned the foreclosure rules for main residences, which is a crucial point for the ECB. He said it was proving difficult to agree on the scale of the primary budget surplus (not including debt-servicing). He said that the reason for the delays was not because Greece didn't have new proposals, but because it doesn't want to make promises that it can't keep.
Eurogroup is turning a deaf ear to Greece's warnings about running out of money. The president of Eurogroup said that Greece had promised to pay back all its loans. The speed must increase, said Dijsselbloem as a way of pointing out that it is Greece, not Eurogroup, that should be incentivised to act quicker by the urgency of the situation.
The Financial Times says the Slovenian minister said a Plan B needed to be prepared in case Greece defaulted, upon which Varoufakis accused him of being anti-European. “I can't tell you how discussions took place. They were very critical discussions, we had hoped to hear a positive result and an agreement but we were far from that,” regretted Dijsselbloem.
Talking about the post-June period. The Dutch minister (Dijsselbloem) said that talks were due to begin on what will happen post-June, when the programmes runs out: “It is clear that it's very hard to talk about the future if you cannot agree on a period of four months,” he warned. The Greek minister said that an agreement could be found very speedily, but the president of Eurogroup said that the Eurogroup meeting on 11 May would “take stock.”
The president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, also stressed the need for speed, hinting that the emergency supply rules for Greek banks may be revised by the governors of central banks in the eurozone. “The higher the yields, the bigger the volatility and the more collateral gets destroyed,” warned Draghi. (Elodie Lamer)