According to the president of the Eurogroup, Jerona Dijsselbloem, the list of reforms that Greece has sent to the EU is "far from complete" and will require "a long time" to be implemented, so "some tranches will not be paid in March of aid” in Athens.
The list of reforms includes the establishment of an independent "fiscal council" to monitor government spending, its budgetary policy and then assess whether targets are being met; improvements in the preparation of the financial statements; the development of a scheme for the fight against VAT evasion; a new plan and tougher laws to collect unpaid taxes from taxpayers and businesses; a new plan to issue licenses to online gambling companies; the reduction of bureaucracy and initiatives to address the humanitarian crisis with the introduction of meal vouchers, measures to guarantee electricity and housing assistance. Total cost: 200,29 million euros.
In anticipation of the meeting to be held tomorrow in Brussels, Greek premier Alexis Tsipras telephoned ECB president Mario Draghi and French president Francois Hollande. To Draghi - according to reports from Bloomberg which quotes government officials in Athens - Tsipras would have confirmed respect for the independence of the Eurotower, recommending, however, that it does not succumb to political pressure. In Hollande, on the other hand, the head of the Greek government would have confirmed his willingness to organize a meeting in Paris soon.
Without the green light for the 7,6 billion euro loan, Greece risks not being able to pay public salaries and pensions. On Friday, Athens repaid the first 310 million euro tranche of a loan maturing in March from the International Monetary Fund. The new government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to repay a total of 1,5 billion euros to the Fund this month between today and the next two weeks. The executive has said it will make the payments but fears have grown over the country's liquidity amid sharply declining tax revenues and while EU and IMF aid remains frozen until Athens completes the reforms it has promised to implement .
For the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, "there will never be a Grexit", but the Tsipras government does not rule out a referendum on European policies in case the Eurogroup denies aid to the country. For this reason, tomorrow Greece will propose to the Eurogroup to review the procedure by which it negotiates reforms with the EU. It would be technical teams in Brussels, rather than the Troika in Greece, doing the preparatory work before the Eurogroup meetings. The proposal was later confirmed by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, according to whom this path "will be discussed by the technical teams who will meet shortly in Brussels".
