A Eurogroup meeting of the Finance Ministers took under an hour to conclude. No deal was found according to Finland’s Finance Minister Alexander Stubbs, who Tweeted that institutions will assess proposals.
The country owes €1.6bn to the International Monetary Fund, which will then unlock a further €7bn in loans for Greece. The lack of a solution indicates that no solution will probably be found by tonight’s Heads of State Summit.
In a press conference held after the meeting by Eurogroup President Jeroen Djisselbloem and Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, it became evident that institutions will be sifting through the Greek proposals over the coming days in hopes of finding a solution.
They highlighted that the proposal from the Greek government came in this morning and was a positive step. The institutions, however, had too little time to go through them and were unable to conduct an in-depth analysis
“Institutions must first go through the proposals and this is the next step”, he explained. “Agreement has not yet been found, however the institutions will work hard with Greek authorities to find agreement later this week”.
As for tonight’s summit, he said that leaders are always able to change their decision, however “we will tell them our opinion”.
“All of this is with a view to reach an agreement later this week if possible”. He stressed the need to see if the reforms proposed meets the requirements.
They also said that there is a possibility of another Eurogroup meeting later on this week.