Greek government and troika give all to reach an agreement today

The chances to reach today an agreement that will pave the way to a positive evaluation for Greece to receive a tranche of 10 billion euros and to begin the process of easing the Greek debt until May, remain 50-50.

After the end of the meeting yesterday everyone was leaving with their head lowered. A Finance Ministry official said "we will continue from Tuesday morning. We hope that today we will have an agreement. There are still 4-5 open issues. We continue this morning with the text of the agreement. If we do not conclude tomorrow, we will continue in the coming days."

Poul Thomsen will be absent from today's meeting as he is returning to the U.S.. as he was leaving the Finance Ministry early Tuesday morning he said "no comment" regarding the agreement.


178 days of progress

Until the last minute the Greek government defends itself behind its “red lines” for the public sector, labour issues and structural changes. One after the other the involved ministers passed yesterday by the office of the Minister of Finance, to give troika their final reply on the compromising proposals.

Yannis Stournaras, Thomsen, Masuch and Morse set to the final straight the overall deal for what each side will give and leave. Both are trying to close the gaps which remain open. An absolute agreement does not seem possible but it's decision time for all.


The agreement was never reached

The final agreement-awaiting climate was overturned shortly after 1 after midnight. In an unusual move, all the negotiating team of the Greek government and the EU, came out from the office of the Minister of Finance. Stournaras, Papastavrou, Staikouras, Masuch and Morse remained for 15 minutes in the hallway, leaving Poul Thomsen and Wes McGrew of the IMF likely to discuss on their own or by phone with Washington and the office of the Fund.

Developments were rapid. Within half an hour the meeting had ended, IMF left in a rush and all the participants had gloomy faces.

The Greek government hopes it can achieve an agreement even today and rescue the big issues that troika is rejecting: social dividend, collective layoffs, public sector, OECD measures, parafiscal taxes.
 

Hopes for a compromise

To close the deal, troika can tell its political superiors that Greece has agreed to implement approximately 700 of the total 879 demanded reforms.
 
"The agreement will depend on whether the troika finds we have made enough reforms," the government estimates. The political validation of the measures should be carried out by April 1st the latest and many estimate that IMF and the EU must issue within the day a notice certifying that the major issues have been resolved and must be accepted.