The Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), composed of euro area finance ministers, approved, on Thursday 13 June, the terms of reference for the evaluation of the financial assistance provided to Greece from 2010 to 2018.
This independent evaluation, which will be supervised by Joaquín Almunia (see EUROPE 12199/28), former Vice-President of the European Commission, in the second half of this year and at the beginning of 2020, will aim in particular to assess the relevance and effectiveness of the three macroeconomic assistance programmes to the Hellenic Republic.
“I look forward to the report that will be prepared under Mr Almunia’s guidance so that the ESM can draw lessons and be even more effective in fulfilling its mission and addressing future crises”, said Klaus Regling, the organisation's managing director.
Five areas of work were identified: - contribution of the Greek programmes to euro area financial stability and the evolving crisis management framework; - programme’s relevance to sustainable and inclusive growth in Greece; - risk assessments and how programmes were adapted in response to adverse outcome; - debt sustainability assessments in light of programme objectives; - ESM’s engagement with the national and international partners.
Such an evaluation had already been carried out in 2017, under the leadership of Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, on the financial assistance programmes for Cyprus, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece up until 2014 (see EUROPE 11809/3).
In addition, at the press conference following the meeting of the ESM’s Governors, Mr Regling reiterated the importance for Athens to respect the commitments made concerning socio-economic reforms and the budget trajectory in the context of the end of financial supervision (see EUROPE 12077/1, 12046/1).
In addition, he reaffirmed, like he did in his statements at the May Eurogroup meeting (see EUROPE 12257/7), that he was “concerned” about the impact of the latest measures, notably the fiscal ones, adopted by the Greek Parliament last month on the budget path and on the fulfilment of Athens' commitment to have a primary surplus (excluding debt service) of +3.5% of its GDP this year. This analysis is also shared by the Commission, as shown in the third enhanced surveillance report on Athens (see EUROPE 12269/2).
A discussion on this report is scheduled for the Eurogroup meeting on 8 July. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)