The positive for Greece 14th report of enhanced supervision will be welcomed by the Eurogroup, which is meeting today in Luxembourg, while the approval of the penultimate installment, amounting to 748 million euros, for the relief of the public debt of Greece is expected.
According to a European official, at the end of August Greece is expected to see the end of the process of close macroeconomic monitoring imposed on it in August 2018. "Greece has come an incredibly long way in the last 12 years and is now on a sustainable path. "This is the result of many years of effort and determination and is worth acknowledging," he said.
The same official said that towards the end of the summer, the Commission is expected to say that there is no reason to extend the status of enhanced supervision for Greece and to announce the end of the process in August.
"This is an important moment, although the end of enhanced supervision does not mean that the work is fully completed," the official said, adding that the Greek authorities have pledged to continue pursuing a stable and prudent fiscal policy. reform efforts, while also committing to implement the remaining outstanding issues in the second half of the year. The same official explained that Greece 's political commitments will be monitored in the context of regular post - program monitoring and in the context of the European Semester.
Regarding the final installment of the debt measures, the European official said that it will be evaluated in the context of the first post-program report in November.
"I expect the Eurogroup to be very supportive of the disbursement of the installments related to the debt relief measures and the normal supervision of Greece", he added and noted that this will be reflected in a statement of the Eurogroup.
Eurozone finance ministers will also be briefed on the European Central Bank (ECB) 's recent decision to gradually raise key interest rates to tackle high inflation. However, the Eurogroup is not expected to face the recent rise in interest rates on long-term government bonds of eurozone countries today.
Finally, the members of the board of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will try to reach an agreement on the successor of Klaus Regling as head of the ESM. The new candidate is expected to take office in October.
There are three candidates for the ESM leadership: Pierre Gramenia, 64, former Luxembourg finance minister, Joao Leao, 48, former Portuguese finance minister, and Marco Bouti, 65, Italian chief of staff Paolo Gentiloni. In the last ballot in May, the Italian candidate, Marco Bouti, is said to have received the fewest votes.
To be nominated for a new ESM CEO, he / she must receive more than 80% of the votes on the ESM Board of Directors. Each eurozone country has a weighted vote according to its share of the bailout fund.
The Minister of Finance Christos Staikouras is in Luxembourg, in order to participate today and tomorrow in the meetings of the Eurogroup and Ecofin, as well as in the annual meetings of the Boards of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Source: RES-EAP