The Euro Working Group convened via teleconference on Thursday afternoon and gave a green light for the disbursement of the 1-billion-euro tranche towards Greece, after Parliament in Athens passed a bill of prior actions early in the week.
The coalition government’s decision to introduce a ‘parallel program’ bill however caused discontent amongst the institutions, which threatened to call off the EWG meeting. The government eventually gave in and withdrew the bill from discussion, with the EWG teleconference then approving the disbursement.
Although the government was forced to back down, it insists that the bill was not ‘withdrawn’ and it intends to resubmit it again in January. The bill will be resubmitted after consultation with the creditors and not before the 7th of January.
As expected, the opposition parties reacted and were highly critical of the government’s retreat, with the Union of Centrists noting that the bill was considered a ‘unilateral action’ by the creditors. The River claimed that the “hastily-written bill of ambiguities and taking care of favors” was withdrawn because the government did not have creditor approval.
New Democracy stressed that the withdrawal proves that the bill was pointless and the government aimed to use it for ‘domestic consumption’. The main opposition party also called the Prime Minister to admit his inability to govern and take the necessary initiatives to overcome the country’s political problem.
