This week’s “no” to an urgent Greek request for an extraordinary Euro summit to push for a “political solution” to the resurgent Greek issue means that the “ball” will remain in the Eurogroup’s court, rather than be bumped up to Eurozone leaders’ corner.
As a result, political deliberations heated up on Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, with the objective now being a Eurogroup meeting for next next, and with the sole purpose of finally concluding the now very delayed first review of the Greek program (third bailout).
Reactions by Greece’s institutional creditors — Commission, ECB, ESM, IMF — remained calm after an announcement that a Eurogroup meeting initially set for Thursday, April 28, had been cancelled due to a failure to overcome differences in negotiations over the previous days between Athens and lenders’ representatives.
The main obstacle, and the most recent one, is a demand by creditors — especially the IMF — to include a 3.6-billion-euro “contingency package” on top of a 5.4-billion-euro package of tax hikes and pension cuts through 2018. The IMF’s top officials have repeatedly stated that they do not believe Athens can meet a 3.5-percent (of GDP) target for a primary budget surplus in 2018. As such, the Washington-based wants a “contingency” package” passed through Parliament and set for automatic activation.
A secondary issue is the fact that European creditors are apparently not ready to put forth a unified positon on the issue of Greek debt relief.
According to sources in Brussels, as well as “well-placed” leaks to the media on the issue, creditors believe differences can be bridged very soon.
In terms of the contentious “contingency package”, a top institutional source in Brussels who is participating in negotiations said lenders are not asking from Athens to adopt potential measures, “one by one”, something that may be legally questionable and politically impossible for the current government at the specific moment.
