Europeans doubt IMF commitment to Greek rescue plan, reports Reuters

Thomsen disappointed with plan, EU sources say

Reuters news agency claims the EU is sceptical about the IMF’s intentions regarding the Greek bailout program, citing numerous anonymous European sources. Reuters underlines that this scepticism about whether the IMF truly wanted to be part of the Greek program become more evident during the recent May 24 Eurogroup meeting, where some European Finance Ministers raised concerns about the Fund’s true intentions. The same sources told Reuters they were surprised with the disagreements among IMF officials themselves pointing to the incident when Poul Thomsen, the Fund’s head in Europe, waited for hours before approving the plan for Greece by IMF director Christine Lagarde. Another EU official told Reuters that Thomsen sounded disappointed during a 10-minute communication with IMF head Lagarde in the hallway outside the meeting room. He was heard saying that the Fund should reject the plan, but eventually seemed to be forced to back down from his argument.