LUXEMBOURG (MNI) – A special Eurogroup meeting that had been
tentatively scheduled for October 13 to decide whether Greece should
receive an E8 billion loan tranche from its public sector creditors has
been cancelled, Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said early
Tuesday morning.
Juncker said the Eurogroup decided to cancel the meeting because
the troika of inspectors from the European Commission, European Central
Bank and International Monetary Fund will not yet have completed its
report on Greece’s compliance with the conditions attached to its
bailout package.
“The report is most probably not going to be ready by the 13th of
October, which was a possible indicative date for the next Eurogroup
meeting,” he said. “Unless there are unforeseen developments, I have
cancelled the meeting.”
Speaking at a press conference after the end of the Eurogroup
meeting in Luxembourg here Monday night, Juncker indicated that the
troika, currently in Athens inspecting the country’s progress towards
achieving fiscal targets, is still seeing loose ends and would like to
have a complete picture of all fiscal and structural measures to be
implemented by 2015, before making its assessment.
“Greece must fully implement the medium-term fiscal plan and
rapidly pass all necessary legislation into force,” Juncker said. “We
also urged the Greek government to agree with the troika on additional
consolidation measures to close any gaps in 2013 and 2014.”
Juncker indicated that the troika was not happy with the continuous
delays in Greece’s privatization plan and he called on the Greek
government to speed it up.
The Greek government “must accelerate the privatization process
with the sale of stakes in companies, real estate and land as well as
concessions” he said.
Juncker added that the Eurogroup will discussed the situation as
soon as the troika report is available.
“I would like to reassure you that despite the change in the date,
Greece will not be facing any cash problems. I would assume that the
Eurogroup will take a definite decision for the sixth tranche in the
course of October and that Greece will be benefiting from it in
November,” he added.
Juncker once again tried to dampen rumours of a possible Greek
default by saying that “everything will be done to avoid a default of
Greece” and that “no-one was advocating a Greek default.”
“I have to firmly deny all the rumours that Greece will be leaving
the Eurozone,” he added.
Both Juncker and EU Commissioner Olli Rehn repeated that the
efforts and measures taken by the Greek government are on the right
track, but they left the door open pending the final figures for 2011.
The Greek government announced Monday that the it had revised the
deficit target for 2011 up to 8.5% of GDP from the previous 7.6%, mainly
due to a deeper-than-expected recession. But neither Rehn nor Juncker
endorsed the new deficit figure.
“Lets not jump the gun either. at this stage it is premature to
give any precise figure. Work is still going on between the troika and
the Greek authorities. This figure [of 8.5% is in the range of plausible
projection,” Rehn said.
Rehn’s vision was in line with Juncker’s. The commissioner said
that “in the remaining part of the troika mission, the focus will
increasingly be on 2013-2014.”
He added: “At this stage it is premature to say to what extent
there will be a need for new [fiscal] consolidation measures. Very
likely there will need to be new measures to meet the targets for those
years. The troika wants to put the focus on substance rather than a
schedule and on quality rather than speed. It wants to make sure the
conditions really are met before concluding the review positively,” the
commissioner said.
–Angelika Papamiltiadou, Athens bureau; a_papamiltiadou@hotmail.com
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