“Progress has been made and negotiations have intensified. I'm happy about it, we too feel the emergency like the Greeks… But Monday's Eurogroup will not be decisive, we need more time”. The president of the Eurogroup said today, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, after meeting the Italian Economy Minister, Pier Carlo Padoan in Via XX Settembre.
As for the hypothesis of a new Greek public debt restructuring, Dijsselbloem clarified better the words he himself spoke yesterday, underlining that there is nothing new compared to the agreement signed by the Eurogroup with the previous government in Athens, led by Antonis Samaras: “If we go back to what was agreed in November 2012 – said the Dutchman -, the question is that if the Greeks complete the program, which has been revised, and fully commit to reforms, but debt sustainability is still not at the required levels, then we will be ready to do more”.
Padoan, which this week met Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in Rome, spoke of "progress" in the ongoing negotiations between Brussels and Athens, but added that "need to speed up”, even if “there is confidence that an agreement with Greece can be reached in a reasonable time”, because “there has been progress both on the modalities and on the measures to be taken to continue the adjustment”.
as to solution that the Italian government must find to the question opened by decision of the Council on pensions (the pronouncement declared the halt to Istat revaluations decided in 2012 by the Monti government for treatments starting at 1.400 euros a month unconstitutional), Dijsselbloem said he was "confident" that Rome will be able to "make the appropriate decisions" to pay the repayments without compromising public finances.
Padoan, on the other hand, confirmed that the Executive "works in compliance with the sentence" of the Constitutional Court on "measures that minimize the impact on public finances".
