On Monday 20 March, Athens and its creditors decided to step up negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement on the principal reforms that Greece must implement in order to finalise the second monitoring mission of the third Greek bailout plan.
The best option is to intensify negotiations on the main issues, such as pensions, the employment market and a few taxation issues, and this can be done over the next few days here in Brussels, as it will not be necessary to gather any extra information, the President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said after the meeting of Eurozone finance ministers.
The negotiations, which constitute one of the conditions laid down by the IMF for its financial participation in the bailout plan (see EUROPE 11747), are expected to continue from Thursday in the presence of the Greek minister, Euclide Tsakalotos, at least initially. The aim is to agree on the outlines of an agreement on certain unpopular measures and their budgetary impact ahead of the next meeting of the Eurogroup in Valletta on Friday 7 April.
However, Dijsselbloem declined to be drawn on the likelihood of reaching a definitive political agreement in April, which will include discussions on the Greek budgetary trajectory post-2018 and medium-term relief measures for the Greek debt. This comes as no surprise, he said, referring to the roadmap adopted by the Eurogroup in May 2016 (see EUROPE 11557).
The Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, spoke of a convergence of opinions around the table as to the importance of signing off the second monitoring mission as soon as possible.
The creditors of Athens stress that any delay in the process will have a negative effect on economic growth, the scale of the Greek budgetary surplus (not including servicing of the debt), the treatment of payment arrears by the Greek state and the return of Athens to the markets. The Greek government hopes that the finalisation of the second monitoring mission will also allow Greece to benefit from the protection represented by the ECB's quantitative easing operation to buy back sovereign debt instruments. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)