Brussels, 29/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Eurozone finance ministers will meet on Monday 9 May to try to finalise discussions with Greece and the IMF in the framework of the first monitoring mission of the third Greek bailout plan.
This date, which was announced on Thursday evening by the Greek authorities and the office of Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, tends to suggest that expert-level talks between Athens and its creditors are near enough to a positive outcome that can be approved at political level. It is also “the only date that suits everybody”, a European source told us, in reference to the Orthodox Easter holidays in Greece.
The same source went on to say that on Monday 9 May, the Greek finance minister, Euclide Tsakalotos, will explain to his counterparts what he understands by the creation of an “automatic mechanism” containing detailed objectives and detailed measures, equivalent to 2% of Greek GDP and to be applied only if Greece deviates from the budgetary trajectory it has agreed with its creditors, specifically a primary budgetary surplus (not including servicing of the debt) of 3.5% of GDP in 2018 (see EUROPE 11541).
A political agreement at the Eurogroup on these contingency measures and sufficiently clear guidelines on the desired rescheduling of the Greek debt would allow financial aid to be paid from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to allow Athens to honour a commitment of €3.5 billion in July. It would also allow the IMF to decide whether it is getting on board the third Greek bailout plan. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)