By Nikos Bellos
Progress in talks over the “next few hours” as well as results from Friday’s Eurogroup meeting in Amsterdam will determine whether or not an extraordinary session of the same eurozone organ is convened next week to achieve the now pressing first review of the Greek program (third bailout).
According to a top EZ official in Brussels on Wednesday, any agreement next week between Athens and its institutional lenders, the so-called “Quartet”, will depend on a conclusion of most negotiations still underway in Athens – as well as Friday’s Eurogroup meeting — between the leftist Greek government and representatives of the creditors – Commission, ECB, ESM and IMF.
Any loose details would be concluded next week, which is Easter Week in predominately Eastern Orthodox Greece.
If an extraordinary Eurogroup meeting is indeed convened, the most likely date is April 28, a religious holiday in many European countries.
The same official downplayed the significance of the figures supplied this week on Greece’s fiscal performance for 2015, underlining that the figures are important only if compared with 2016’s figures, and “not if viewed over a period of three years, in other words, with a timetable extending to 2018, as the review foresees.”
