Brussels, 20/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - In Amsterdam on Friday 22 April, the Eurozone finance ministers will be brought up to speed with the negotiations underway in Athens in the framework of the first monitoring mission of the third Greek bailout plan (see EUROPE 11534). They are not expected to reach a political agreement on the package of budgetary measures and reforms to be applied by Greece in exchange for financial support.
Friday's Eurogroup will last for just three hours, which is not long enough to reach an agreement, a senior European official said on Wednesday 20 April. However, “if there is so much progress that the conclusion of the negotiations can be rationally expected, then I would expect there to be a Eurogroup sometime next week”, he added. The date of Thursday 28 April has been put forward.
Athens and its creditors have still to put the finishing touches to budgetary measures to allow Athens to comply with a trajectory leading to a primary surplus (not including debt servicing) of 3.5% of GDP in 2018. “Contingency measures” are being put together and are to be voted on, but will be applied only if the most pessimistic scenario of the IMF should materialise, the same source confirmed, whilst the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that these measures would not be particularly helpful, in an interview published on Wednesday on the website euro2day.gr. The differences of opinion between the Europeans and the IMF concern the budgetary figures for 2015 and will have an impact on the scale of the measures to be adopted.
The discussions will also cover reforms of pensions and income tax, the treatment of non-performing bank loans and the creation of privatisation funds for Greek assets. Also on the agenda will be measures to reduce the Greek debt, but these will not lead to a haircut on the Greek securities, three quarters of which are owned by the Europeans. “Having no debt-related measures agreed would mean that the IMF is not on board (with the third bailout plan). For many member states, there are no agreement on the first review”, the source warned.
Banking Union. The ministers will be informed about the progress in the creation of Banking Union in the Eurozone. Belgium, Poland and Slovenia are the only countries which have not yet fully transposed the 'BRRD' directive on bank restructuring. Poland, Sweden and Slovenia have not transposed the 'DGS' directive on national bank deposit guarantee schemes, and Belgium has done so only partially. The Eurogroup will also discuss the harmonisation of the options and leeways laid down in the banking prudential rules.
It is worth noting that the Commission is expected to provide its initial indications on its assessment of the budgetary situation in Spain (see EUROPE 11535) and Portugal (see EUROPE 11488), the statistical office of the EU (Eurostat) having presented the definitive budgetary figures for the member states for 2015 on Thursday.
Finally, the Eurogroup will hold an exchange on legal frameworks insolvency, which differ greatly between countries. The talks will focus on a series of principles (speed, predictability and cost of proceedings), according to this senior EU official. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Elodie Lamer)