Participants at the meeting of the Eurogroup in Tallinn on 15 September hope to be able to finalise the third monitoring mission of the third Greek bailout plan before the end of the year.
The reforms that this monitoring mission will call for, mainly regarding the public sector and employment market, will definitely be implemented this autumn, as the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, called for on Sunday 10 September (see EUROPE 11859). It was certainly announced by Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, in a joint press conference with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the President of the Eurogroup, Klaus Regling, the Director General of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and Benoît Coeuré, member of the governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB), following the Eurogroup meeting. Moscovici added that the work would be “intense”, but that the conclusion of the third monitoring mission and exit from the third bailout plan would mark the “end of a long, difficult chapter for the Eurozone”.
The four participants at the press conference said they were pleased with the positive signals sent out by both the Greek authorities and the markets. Regling acknowledged that the ratings agencies are currently giving the Hellenic Republic positive assessments, a clear sign of better days ahead for Greece. Dijsselbloem announced that following the Commission's proposal to bring Greece out of excessive deficit proceedings (see EUROPE 11828), in place against the country since 2009, the Council will adopt this recommendation by the end of September, with Greece recording a primary budgetary surplus (not including servicing of the debt) of 4.2% of GDP for the year 2016. Although the Hellenic Republic must also present the Commission with its 2018 budget by 15 October, Moscovici said that he was confident about this budget, which is expected to provide for a primary budgetary surplus of 3.5% of GDP (see EUROPE 11810).
However, those participating also expressed a degree of caution, the Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner talking of “reasoned and reasonable confidence”. “Now we must ensure that this positive trend and the confidence are sustainable”, he added.
Concerns around legal proceedings against former ELSTAT director. The Eurozone financial policy-makers also discussed the case of Andreas Georgiou, former Director of the Greek statistical institute (ELSTAT), who was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence on Tuesday 1 August (see EUROPE 11841) for failing to inform ELSTAT's board of administration of his decision to send the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat) Greek budgetary figures for 2009 that he had revised upwards. Dijsselbloem and the other three participants at the press conference called for ELSTAT's independence and that of the legal institution to be protected. However, there is no question that the Eurogroup President will interfere with the Greek legal system, calling on the Greek government to refrain from doing so as well. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)