Euro are finance ministers will meet in Brussels at 4 p.m. on Monday with a focus on the general situation of the Greek economy followed by a discussion on Greece. Recent talks have been constructive even though an agreement to unlock the 7.2 billion euros benchmarked for Greece is not expected at Monday’s meeting.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, accompanied by lead Brussels negotiator George Chouliarakis, will represent Greece at the meeting. For the past 10 days, Chouliarakis has been tackling tough negotiations with the Brussels Group in Belgian for a packet of measures lining a new agreement with Greece’s creditors.
Athens does not expect a final decision at the May 11 Eurogroup but the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government wants its EU partners and creditors to present a statement on “visible progress” as a goodwill gesture. Should there be no such statement, then Greece will take it as a sign that the country’s humiliation will continue and the ECB’s hard line policy will linger on. In that case, chances are the next installment of a payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not be paid with the government
Sources state that the alarm was raised in Athens following the meeting between Greek Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis and European Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi last week. Draghi sent the message that he cannot control the reaction of central bankers of other eurozone members and stated that unless Athens changes he cannot guarantee more aid following the 2 billion euros that had been decided on last Thursday from the European Liquidity Assistance fund.
The severity of the situation could be seen from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ reaction to the Dragasaki-Draghi meeting. He called German Chancellor Angela Merkel and has been on a mission to come up with new measures so as to avoid the worst-case scenario for Greece.
Time is running out, along with international creditors’ patience, and the government at Eurogroup wants a statement of progress from EU partners so as to sweeten the bitter pill of more measures and tightened funding for the Greek economy. SYRIZA hopes that such a statement would make its shortfalls appear like a victory.
