Greece is not moving fast enough to draw up and implement structural reforms and there is limited time to prevent it running out of cash, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said yesterday.
The mood between Greece’s newly elected leftist government and its eurozone partners has been tense during negotiations that will determine whether the cash-strapped country gets further, much-needed financial aid from its EU/IMF lenders.
“Talks are very complicated. Time is running out,” Dombrovskis told Reuters in an interview. “Greece should come up with an ambitious reform list in line with its bailout programme and also start to implement it,” he said.
A meeting of deputy finance ministers – called the Euro Working Group – on Thursday gave Athens a deadline of six working days to present a revised economic reform plan, before euro zone finance ministers meet on April 24 to decide whether to unlock emergency funding to keep Greece afloat.
Dombrovskis noted that April 24 was not a formal deadline to reach a deal with Greece, but the country’s financial difficulties were pressing.
Technical teams from Greece and its international lenders held a teleconference on Saturday to outline the agenda of talks over the next few days, a Greek finance ministry official said at the weekend.
Dombrovskis said eurozone finance ministers had done their best to be flexible, but Greece now also had to do more.
“If the Greek government does not like some of the programme measures it is possible to replace them with other measures with equal fiscal value,” he said.
“The Eurogroup has also indicated at the possibility to look at Greece’s primary surplus targets without undermining debt sustainability, so there are number of steps the Eurogroup has indicated it is willing to take to facilitate an agreement.”
Meanwhile later yesterday Greece denied a report by the Financial Times that it was preparing for a debt default if it did not reach a deal with its creditors by the end of the month. The Financial Times reported that Athens planned to withhold loan tranches totalling €2.5 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund due in May and June if it failed to reach a deal on reforms with its creditors by the end of April.
“Greece ... is not preparing for any debt default and the same goes for its lenders. Negotiations are proceeding swiftly towards a mutually beneficial solution,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ office said in a statement issued yesterday.
“What appears to rankle is that the Greek government is determined to put an end to austerity policies.”