On Thursday, 2 May, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) formally recorded the disbursement of an aid instalment of nearly €1 billion to Greece as part of the measures arising from Athens’s exit from the latest financial assistance plan for Greece.
These decisions echo the green light given by euro area finance ministers during the Eurogroup meeting in Bucharest this past 5 April (see EUROPE 12230/3).
This aid instalment corresponds to profits made by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks on SMP and ANFA transactions to repurchase Greek public debt during the sovereign debt crisis along with the abolition of interest rate margins on Greek public debt repurchase instalments.
Decided in the context of the agreement on the Athens’s exit from the third three-year bailout plan which it was subject to until August 2018 (see EUROPE 12046/1 and 12077/1), this aid was partly conditional on the implementation of reforms in Greece.
“After the end of the ESM programme, Greece took the commitment to continue implementing all key reforms adopted under the programme. Today’s decision by the EFSF not to charge the step-up margin shows that the Greek government is abiding by its reform commitments”, declared ESM Managing Director and EFSF CEO Klaus Regling in a statement. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)