The European Commission puts available to Greece 2 billion euros obtained from unused European funds. This was announced today at the end of the European Council Jean-Claude Juncker, number one of the Brussels Executive, specifying that the funds "will not be transferred to the Greek state, but may be used to strengthen action in support of growth and social cohesion to tackle youth unemployment".
The economic recovery "is underway, even if it is not yet structural", added the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, underlining however that the current pace of economic reforms is not satisfactory.
Juncker's words come a few from nocturnal maxi-summit between the Greek premier Alexis Tsipras, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, the French president François Hollande and the highest European offices, including the number one of the Commission himself.
At the end of the meeting, Tsipras had assured that in the next few days he will supply the creditors with a list of reforms to overcome the stalemate on the payment of the last tranche of the bailout funds, equal to 7,2 billion.
Today, however, Merkel specified that any new disbursement in favor of Greece (whether from the old fund to save EFSF states or from the proceeds of the ECB's Smp plan) will be possible "only following the completion of the verification of the programme" by the former Troika , verifies that moreover "it must be approved by the Eurogroup". The chancellor's reference is to the terms of the agreement put in black and white between Athens and Brussels on 28 February.
