At the informal meeting in Bratislava on Friday 9 September, the eurozone finance ministers will take stock on the implementation of the third Greek bailout plan.
The Greek government has to carry out 15 prior actions before the Athens' creditors will agree to pay out the sub-tranche of €2.8 billion from the envelope unblocked after the conclusion of the first monitoring mission of the bailout plan (see EUROPE 11575, 11557).
These measures include the setting in place of the privatisation fund (and of its supervisory board in particular) as well as reforms in the energy sector, in banking sector governance and within the national revenue authorities.
These prior measures will not be finalised by 15 September and it is the intention of the Greek authorities to have them ready by early October at the latest. In Bratislava, therefore, the Eurogroup will not be making any decisions on the definitive payment of the sub-tranche. "It's not a major problem if it happens at the end of September" when the euro working group meets next, a senior European official told us on Wednesday 7 September. Stressing that Greece was "absolutely not" faced with any short-term liquidity problems, the official went on to note that there is "lots of goodwill" on the part of the Greek authorities and their creditors.
At the Eurogroup meeting, the Greek minister is also expected to present his vision as to how the second monitoring mission, due to start in early October, will unfold. Amongst other things, this phase includes the adoption of an employment market reform, a tricky undertaking for a government firmly rooted on the left of the political spectrum. The Syriza coalition wants to bring back the collective agreements that were shelved under the earlier bailout plans, whilst the creditors will be bringing pressure to bear for measures to reinforce the flexibility of labour.
Alongside the second monitoring mission, discussions will resume on debt relief for Greece. On the basis of a new analysis of the viability of the Greek debt, the IMF must state by the end of this year whether it intends to participate financially in the third bailout plan, which has an envelope of €86 billion under the ESM.
A summit of the Mediterranean countries will take place in Athens on Friday, ahead of the informal summit of Bratislava of 27 member states on Friday 16 September. Like the European Social Democrats (see EUROPE 11609), the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, is calling for greater flexibility in the European budgetary rules and for the resources of the Juncker investment plan to be doubled.
2016 and 2017 budgets
The ministers will not revisit the decisions made this summer by the Council not to fine Spain and Portugal, even though the two Iberian countries did not take sufficiently effective measures to comply with the Stability Pact (see EUROPE 11605, 11602). Nor will they debate the granting of an extra two years (from 2016 to 2018) for Spain and one year for Portugal (from 2015 to 2016) for these countries to bring their government deficit back below the 3% of national GDP mark.
The eurozone countries are to present their 2017 draft budgets by 15 October at the latest. The same senior European official expressed his hopes that by mid-October, Spain would be able to shed more light on the measures it intends to take to comply with its budgetary commitments. However, he added that the Spanish caretaker government could not be considered to blame if it was unable to stick to the deadline set. "I'm not worrying" about it, he said, referring to the extra two years granted to Spain to come out of excessive deficit procedure. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)