On Thursday 26 October, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) announced that it had paid the final tranche of aid of €800 million to the Greek authorities, to close the second monitoring mission of the third bailout plan.
This comes on top of the €7.7 billion paid out on 10 July this year (see EUROPE 11826), in line with the agreement reached at the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg on 15 June (see EUROPE 11810) to finalise the second monitoring mission of the third Greek bailout plan. This tranche was conditional upon significant progress in settling debt arrears. Klaus Regling, the director general of the ESM, took pains to congratulate the Greek authorities on their efforts, observing that the amount by which the arrears had been reduced in recent months shows that Greece has exceeded the targets laid down in the programme, which should have a significant effect on the country's economy.
Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, welcomed the fact that the mutual commitments had been kept and called for progress in order to complete the programme by summer 2018. Athens and its institutional creditors are currently in talks to formally launch the third and final monitoring mission of this third bailout plan, which the Greek government hopes to conclude swiftly (see EUROPE 11859). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)