Brussels, 09/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Eurogroup hopes that discussions with Greece will conclude this week, to allow decisions to be made at expert level no later than early next week.
There are two outstanding issues, said the president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, following the meeting of the finance ministers of the eurozone countries on Monday 9 November. These issues have to do with the governance of the banks and household insolvency. The ministers have asked the Treasury directors to meet “no later than early next week to take stock”, said the Dutch minister. With a bit of luck, “the first set of prior actions will have been implemented” and positive decisions can be taken to make further financial assistance available, he added. Not only the sub-tranche of €2 billion of aid, but also regarding the €10 billion waiting in a blocked account and earmarked for the recapitalisation of the Greek banks.
Dijsselbloem went into greater detail on what is expected of the Greeks before the tranche of €10 billion - or less, depending on the needs of the banks - can be paid out. The first list must be fully in place and a political agreement, preferably translated into Greek legislation, must be reached on issues related to the governance of the banks - measures under the second set of prior actions.
Upon his arrival at the Eurogroup, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, referred to the privatisation fund of €50 billion to be set in place. When asked about this, Dijsselbloem explained that this point related indirectly to bank governance. The creation of this fund is currently being discussed, the Dutch minister went on to explain.
European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Pierre Moscovici spoke of fairly intense discussions on property foreclosures, for which he argues that a balanced solution between the protection of vulnerable individuals and banking solvency must be found. On Friday, Greek sources listed the scale of the differences between their proposals and those of the representatives of Athens' creditors. For instance, the 'institutions' (Commission, ECB, IMF and ESM) are proposing that protection from property foreclosures should cover only residences with a commercial value of more than €120,000, whilst the Greeks want to put this threshold at €200,000 for a single person and €250,000 for a couple. Another decisive criterion relates to total exposure to indebtedness to the state, pension funds and banks. The Greeks put this at €200,000, whereas the 'institutions' proposed €120,000. The third criterion concerns the income of borrowers.
At a press conference, the director general of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling, said that an envelope of €25 billion had been provided in the third Greek bailout plan to support the banks. However, the ECB's health check showed that the Greek financial institutions would need just €14.4 billion. This, Regling explained, means that the maximum funding for the Greek programme will probably be less than the anticipated €86 billion. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)