Brussels, 29/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 1 June, there will be only one month left for Greece and its lenders to agree on a list of reforms to be implemented in order to allow the release of the remaining funding in the country's second bailout programme and also to agree on what will happen post-30 June, when the current plan expires.
EU Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Friday 29 May that the talks would take place in stages. “We first need to close the review of the second programme, to conclude the programme, and then we'll be capable of talking about further arrangements”, he said on Bloomberg Television. So far, all the talks have focussed solely on the current programme. A eurozone source says there has not yet been any “concrete move in that direction” to allow a further extension to the second bailout plan, but is seems all the same as though this is the only way of finding the time to agree on what will happen after June.
Agreement on a “follow-up arrangement” to accompany the end of the current programme is said not to be possible in the short time remaining, and the optimism in Athens about an imminent agreement is not shared by the country's interlocutors.
According to the Financial Times, the IMF confirmed on Thursday that could delay its repayments until the end of June if necessary, but this is not something that Athens has requested. The head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has not ruled out Greece defaulting on its loans.
Upcoming talks with the EP. Pierre Moscovici, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and the head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, are reported to have accepted an invitation from the European Parliament to a closed meeting on Greece at the European Parliament's Conference of Presidents. Tsipras still needs to confirm his availability so that a date can be fixed, possibly on Thursday 4 June. Meanwhile, the co-presidents of the Greens/EFA Group at the Parliament will travel to Athens at the weekend to meet ministers in the Greek government. (Elodie Lamer)