Many European ministers have warned that Greece’s next tranche of 2bn euros will not be approved today, since despite the measures taken in recent weeks, Greece has still many open issues.

Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters that while Greece has made progress, he doesn’t expect to sign off the payment.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble clarified that Greece and European partners will not reach an agreement in today’s Euro Working Group.

He told reporters that Greece didn’t qualify for receiving the next tranche of 2 billion euros, since the required measures have not been implemented. But, as he said, European partners will listen to what Greek government has to say, while stressing that a prerequisite for the recapitalization of the Greek banks is the Privatization Fund.

European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici said he was confident that an agreement on Greece could be reached probably not today, but the coming days.

He also added that he had “very positive, very fruitful meetings” with the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and other ministers during his recent visit to Athens, on which he would update the Eurogroup.
“We are working on the first set of milestones, which are a precondition in order to decide for the disbursement of 2.0 billion euros that we really want to happen,” he said, noting most of the milestones are already adopted or decided.
“There is still a way to go, we are not yet completely there, but I am hopeful and confident that with the spirit of compromise that we have, with the good cooperation with the authorities, we can make it if not today then in the days to come,” he said, indicating that he expected a result hopefully within the week.