Greece’s creditors have given Athens six or seven days to present a comprehensive list of measures and reforms in order to prepare for the April 24th Eurogroup which will decide if the 7.2 billion euros of financial aid will be disbursed.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is the one who will take the final decision since lenders demand certain reforms on which the Greek government has drawn a “red line,” such as pension cuts, labor laws and security funds legislation.
Euro zone creditors expect Athens to come up with the reforms list on April 15 or 16 when the Euro Working Group will convene. The technical teams of Greece’s European partners expect the proposals to have a price tag and specifics on how financial objectives will be achieved.
So far, according to sources from Brussels, there has been talk on the creditors’ side that the Greek team is not very cooperative when it comes to explanations on how certain fiscal goals will be achieved. Also, they say that the Greek team is offering more theoretical talk than actual technical details.
At the same time the Greek government is hoping for a partial release of funds according to the progress of reforms. However, the International Monetary Fund refuses partial disbursement as this is contrary to the organization’s rules.
According to sources from Greece’s finance ministry, after the Greek Orthodox Easter (April 12) Greece will present measures that will generate 10 billion euros in revenues, mainly from taxation. Creditors say that these are temporary, one-off revenues that will not help the Greek budget in the long term. They want permanent reforms that will boost the economy.
Sources within the Euro Working Group said that Athens asked for liquidity on Wednesday’s session but creditors denied.
Thereby, April 24 will be a critical day for liquidity for Greece. When euro zone finance ministers will meet in Riga, Latvia and discuss the Greek list of measures.
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