European Commission VP Dombrovskis says a deal ‘on principle’ with Greece is near

There is also a contingency plan in case ‘optimistic’ scenario falls through

European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner of Euro matters Valdis Dombrovskis revealed that Greece and its lenders were close to reaching a deal ‘on principle’, responding to a question asked by protothema.gr in Brussels. ‘We made good progress in Washington and there is an agreement on principle that we are now exploring in Athens by using the Commission’s projections on the Greek economy’, said Dombrovskis. He underlined that the Quartet representatives were currently working with the Greek authorities to find ways to implement measures based on the Commission’s projections on the Greek economy. The Comissioner added that they were also working on a contingency plan, in the event the more pessimistic IMF scenarios came true. ‘We cannot give any deadline for the completion of the first review, as its should have been completed last Autumn’, said Dombrovskis, replying to a protothma.gr question on whether a technical agreement could be flushed out before Orthodox Easter. He pointed out that the important thing was the implementation of the commitments outlined in the memorandum of understanding.