Djisselbloem: Greece has done a lot of work, pushing forward reforms
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Arriving for a Eurogroup meeting on Tuesday, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that the focus will be on reaching agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to “move on with” the Greek programme. Asked about the IMF’s concerns about Greek debt, he said “a reason to look at debt relief” and appeared hopeful about the meeting’s outcome.
“I think that the Greek government has done a lot of work, certainly since the summer and in the last couple of weeks, pushing forward reforms, difficult measures, and getting them through Parliament. So I hope that there is a full agreement between the institutions and that we can move on in the programme,” he said.
Replying to questions, Dijsselbloem ruled out a “haircut” of Greek loans, noting that there is no support for that in the Eurogroup. “What we can look at is the annual debt burden: Can Greece on an annual basis, pay its debts? If not, we are ready to help them in the coming years and to take away some of those problems,” he said.
Despite an apparent lack of agreement with the IMF on this issue, Dijsselbloem replied that “the purpose of today’s meeting is to get that agreement” and ruling out the prospect of continuing without it.
“I think that will be very difficult and many countries in the Eurogroup have always expressed that they will like the IMF on board. The IMF is very experienced in running programmes, the IMF is very precise in assessing the situation in Greece and whether Greece sticks to its commitments, so there is a real added value to have the IMF on board. It’s not an option to go on without the IMF,” he said.
The Eurogroup president acknowledged the validity of the IMF’s concerns on debt, adding that this would be another of the issues discussed at Tuesday’s Eurogroup.
“I think there is a reason to look at debt relief, because the debt is very high and there will be some problems in the future. I think the debt analysis shows that. How big these problems are, how we can deal with them and when we can deal with them? That’s today’s topic,” he said.
ANA-MPA, Brussels