Tsakalotos: “IMF participation is planned”

The Eurogroup meeting held on Thursday concluded after three hours with Finance Ministers not taking any decision on Greece, as it was expected.

The government was forced to accept that the International Monetary Fund will remain part of the bailout program .

“Tsakalotos confirmed to me that the Greek government accepts that the IMF needs to be part of the process,” said Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

“It was absolutely clear to him, it was part of the agreement this summer,” the Dutch finance minister added.

Tsakalotos confirmed the decision in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper. “The IMF’s participation is planned. We are sticking to this commitment,” Tsakalotos told the daily.

Speaking to Kathimerini and four other European newspapers, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told Kathimerini that Brussels is working on the basis that the Fund will be involved in Greece.
The other key issues mentioned by Dijsselbloem after Thursday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers were the need for Greece and its lenders to exchange more information on the coalition’s pension proposals and to discuss the fiscal measures for this year.
However, the statement of Klaus Regling, head of European Stability Mechanism, after the meeting was quite ambiguous.
Mr. Regling told reporters that the Greek government faces some urgency in completing the review “to improve confidence but also because the liquidity situation will become tight again over the next few months.”
Mr. Dijsselbloem said that completing the review will might take months rather than weeks and stressed the resulting reward for Greece.
“Once the institutions and the Greeks have come to an agreement on the first review, then we will start political debates on debt sustainability,” he said. “We promised to do that, we need to do that.”
Arriving at the meeting, Mr. Schaeuble said the Greek government is making significant efforts, while the delay in conducting the first review of the Greek programme was “understandable”.
He also reported having “constructive talks” with his Greek counterpart Euclid Tsakalotos in Berlin during their meeting on Wednesday and expressed his conviction that Greece will proceed with the implementation of the agreements “step-by-step” with the next step being the review of the programme, which must be completed successfully.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to meet IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos.
Tsipras is also expected to raise the issue of debt relief. The Fund has insisted that Greece will need a substantial restructuring of its total debt, whereas the European lenders are more focused on keeping debt servicing costs low.