A meeting of the Euro Working Group (EWG) is taking place at this time in Brussels and is focused on reaching a staff level agreement on the completion of the program for Greece. The EWG meeting is believed to be a matter of course, however will not include discussion on debt relief.
Sources from the European Commission (EC) in Brussels say that an agreement on discussion for the disbursement of a 5.4-billion-euro tranche for Greece and a contingency mechanism for 3.6 billion euros — in the case that Greece veers away from targets — had already been agreed upon last week. The Eurogroup meeting on Monday confirmed this.
All that is left for Greece to do is to legislate prior actions along with the contingency mechanism, as well as corrections from the Greek side so as to ensure a positive result at the Eurogroup meeting on May 24 where it is expected that Eurozone Finance Ministers will give the green light for the disbursement required for Greece to pay off two debt payments due to creditors in July and cover state arrears.
EC Spokesman Margaritis Schinas announced that he will be briefed on the application of the agreement by Declan Costello, the EC’s head of the mission to Greece, at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
