The spotlights of Europe turn on Greece once again. The extraordinary Eurogroup meeting will be held this afternoon to examine the "progress" made by Athens and complete the first awaited revision of the bailout agreement signed last summer, but the green light for the transfer of the new tranche of aid is more uncertain than ever .
Yesterday evening, after yet another dramatic session, the Greek Parliament approved the package of austerity measures presented by Alexis Tsipras, which provides for cuts in pensions, increases in social security contributions and taxes. Since Friday, the country has been paralyzed by a wave of strikes.
Cooling the optimism about the unblocking of the negotiation is a letter to the Eurogroup from Christine Lagarde, director general of the IMF, according to whom the Greek commitment to immediately formally define other preventive measures to be triggered in the event that the Greece fails to meet budget targets.
The creditors - especially the IMF and Germany - are convinced that the new 3 billion cuts approved by the Greek government with the tax and pension reforms are not sufficient to meet the objectives contained in the bailout plan, which requires Athens to obtain a surplus primary equal to 3,5% in 2018.
For this reason, the Fund and Berlin want to force Greece to immediately launch new austerity measures not envisaged in last summer's agreements. In summary, the Greek Parliament is now being asked to approve interventions for another 3 billion euros (equal to 2% of GDP) which would be triggered automatically if Athens were to miss the target set for 2018.
The Greek Constitution prevents the adoption of a safeguard clause of this type. This was pointed out in recent weeks by the Greek finance minister, Euclis Tsakalotos, who alternatively proposed his country's commitment to make automatic cuts when Eurostat certifies significant deviations from the objectives. The creditors refused.
