Brussels, 06/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 6 November, the European Commission said that progress was being made every day in the talks between the Greek authorities on the prior actions that Greece has to implement in order to obtain a €2 billion aid sub-instalment.
The institutions are now finalising their assessment of implementation of the prior actions, explained Commission spokesperson Annika Breidthardt, saying that the Eurogroup on Monday 9 November will provide “an opportunity to take stock of progress.” The Greeks are reported to have sent in new information on Thursday evening that the institutions are analysing. The Council's technical Euro Working Group teleconference on Friday evening was cancelled because the institutions hadn't finished their analysis. A diplomat didn't rule out another meeting being held before the Eurogroup meeting on 9 November. On the trickiest issue, house repossessions, sources at the institutions said on Friday that the parties were moving closer to each other.
Several sources thought the Eurogroup meeting may discuss the second list of prior actions, which would allow the release of a sub-instalment of a billion euros. The ECB is expected to unveil the results of its health check of Greek banks, which revealed a capital shortfall to the order of €14.4 billion. The same diplomat said that this could be reduced to €10 billion (the amount already set aside for banks under the European Stability Mechanism aid plan) by raising capital from private investors and an internal bank bail-in. The eurozone has pledged €25 billion to bail out banks and it seems likely that the remaining €15 billion would be kept to reassure investors. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)