The Minister of Finances Gikas Hardouvelis is heading to Brussels today to participate in a critical Eurogroup session, since the precautionary credit line for Greece will be discussed. Today’s sessions is meant to set the discussion framework so that by the next Eurogroup (on the 8th of December) a final decision can be made for Greece’s “transition program” which will come into effect at the start of 2015, after the current program ends on the 31st of December 2014.
Mr. Hardouvelis spoke to Reuters on Wednesday and explained that the new program would last up to a year and have limited EU and IMF supervisions, without the current “micro-management” of creditors. This new program would focus on 10-15 main reforms, while granting Greece access to a safety net credit line.
According to reports the coalition government wants the credit line to be comprised of 8 billion euros (of the 11 billion euros) that Greece has borrowed via the HFSF, plus a further 6 billion euros from the profits that Eurozone member states made off Greek bonds (SMPs). Despite Greek plans though, the IMF has objected to the possibility of merely offering technical assistance and wants a more active role, while demanding clarifications regarding the end of its program that ends in March 2016.
Meanwhile the comments made by Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem regarding the extension of the current program has caused some tension, prompting the response of Mr. Hardouvelis. According to the Ministry of Finances, the Dutch minister assured Athens that he did not refer to the continuation of the current program, but rather the phase following the current program.
Mr. Dijsselbloem’s spokesman told To Vima that a mistake was made in translation and that the Dutch minister specifically referred to “the follow-up of the current program”. Some sources however suggest that there was not a mistake in translation, but rather yet another rash move by Mr. Dijsselbloem that the new Commission president Jean Claude Juncker was called upon to resolve.
