Despite the optimism expressed in recent days in Athens and Brussels that Thursday’s Eurogroup meeting would be the most mundane and indifferent to date, and a mere formality, the outcome hid a negative surprise, as the disbursement of the final tranche of 15 billion euros to Greece was blocked and postponed until August. As Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said on Thursday, following the end of the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels during a joint press conference, the tranche will be disbursed to Greece in August
At a press conference given jointly by Centeno, ESM director Klaus Regling and European Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, the Eurogroup president said the member-states approved the tranche disbursement but the final decision will be made once national processes are completed in Germany: “I expect it at the beginning of August,” he said.
Regling said this is the last joint press conference with the other two men while Greece is still in an adjustment program, which ends on August 20 as he noted.
Greece is on the way to normalcy, he said, and the last tranche will be disbursed when the last national parliament’s approval is completed, Moscovici said, calling for patience.