During the Eurogroup meeting, it seems that Greece regains its credibility abroad, especially after the removal of Mr. Theocharis from the tax collection mechanism. However, Europe asks for more signs of credibility. Eurogroup congratulated Greece for its progress, but continued to put pressure on the remaining prerequisites.

The main conclusions drawn from the Eurogroup meeting are:

– Europe’s first priority is to return to economic growth. European Central Bank will play an active role in the near future since it will inject liquidity in the eurozone.

– Relief on tax and austerity measures is also one topic, but it is not set as a priority.

– Eurogroup is concerned about tax wages which in Greece have been decreased significantly, from 44% to 39%, but they still remain high compared to the rest of Europe.

– The debate on the Greek debt relief is expected to begin in October, when Troika completes its audit.

– Then ECB will decide the amount of funds left over at the Financial Stability Fund and how these will be used.

– There were no concerns about the Greek banking system and the discussion ended soon.

The president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi, though, was concerned about the real intentions of the Greek government. He expressed his concerns to Mr. Hardouvelis by saying that “you have eased reforms” and Greek finance minister responded by saying “on the contrary, we have accelerated the reforms”.

The European partners congratulated the Greek delegation for fulfilling the six prerequisites, but asked to show the same strength for the other six prerequisites.