Eurogroup: No installment, no extraordinary meeting, no debt relief - Only continuing austerity
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
Yesterday's Eurogroup came to the worst possible conclusion, confirming information that the German Finance Ministry is not willing to make further concessions on the Greek debt issue at this stage.
First, there is still no disbursement. And that's not because there are 25 prerequisites out of the 140, which need to be settled, but because for the agreement to close the IMF should sign up for active engagement in the Greek program. "There is time, but not enough," said Claus Regling, recalling that even if on 15 June there was the overall agreement announced by Djisenbloom with carefully worded statements, it will take 3-4 weeks for National parliaments to approve this and about 5 weeks to go through the IMF's executive board. But, between July 17-20, 6.3 billion euros must be paid.
Secondly, there is no possibility of an extraordinary Eurogroup. This is because of what the Eurogroup head has said and implied, the distance between Europeans - that is, Berlin - and the IMF is so great that it's unlikely If they manage to cover it in the next three weeks.
Thirdly, and even more importantly, even the specialization of debt relief measures, which are supposed to be implemented at the end of the Program, requires such compromises, that are currently not feasible. Those who attended the press conference lost count of how many times the phrase "if needed" sounded, echoing the German line, saying that Greece does not need debt relief but reforms.
All that Europeans have agreed on with the IMF yesterday is that Greece will remain in tough austerity with surpluses of 3.5% by the end of 2022, and from then on there is a tough bargain for the rate of de-escalation.
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