By Chiara De Felice BRUSSELS, 24 (ANSA) – The game is not yet finished, but another important milestone was reached: to Green light given today by the Eurogroup to the first list of reforms the government of Greece and the four-month extension of the bailout program is about time to unlock the disbursement of aid required to allow Athens to survive.
But the result still can not be taken for granted: the European Union (EU), the list is just “a good start”, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) is too vague to think that the next tranche of aid already in the pocket.
The Greek premier, Alexis Tsipras and his ministers have until April 30 to fill content your list, and only then the former ” troika “will give its opinion final and recommend or not the disbursement of aid.
With free via the Eurogroup what they can begin are national procedures for appro val of the agreement. Now they must express the parliaments of Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Slovenia, possibly before the end of the month, as the current program expires 28
But there should be no risk, even if someday it would delay. The March 5, the ECB should decide to reopen the taps to Greek banks, closed on February 11 when Tsipras unilaterally decided to order the program. The “ok” Eurogroup gives the necessary political support to Frankfurt to accept Greek bonds again. Credit problems will arise in March, when Athens must repay more than 4,000 million of bonds and 1.900 billion to the IMF. For now the only way seems to be new issues, but also it should get the green light from the ECB.
Europe’s first contact with Tsipras reforms, however, was not entirely positive, although the premiere Left resigned almost everything left over. But if for the head of German government, Angela Merkel, the Greek government “back to reality& #8221; to the IMF and the ECB still “not quite put your feet on the floor.” “For me, it is clear that the completion of the evaluation can not rely on this list,” wrote the IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, the Eurogroup.
Because, in his view, in several areas lacking guarantees on the reforms envisaged in the Memorandum, including VAT, pensions and continuation of liberalization, privatization and labor reform.
The list is vague, confidence is low, and are strong doubts that theory into practice measures can be converted into something else. Especially because of the numerous references to “social justice” that, according to the Greek government, should guide all measures.
Commitments outlined in the letter of Greece differ from current program commitments in many areas, so “we evaluated during the review if not accepted measures have been replaced by measures of equal or higher quality,” wrote Mario Draghi, ECB president in his letter to the finance ministers of the euro zone.
The issue, therefore, is by no means closed, Merkel said. Everything now depends on the commitment of Greece in the next two months. But today’s stage was enough for markets to regain confidence: the Athens Stock Exchange soared and closed with a rise of almost 10%. Y8K-ADG / MRZ
02/24/2015 22:52
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