Agreement reached on Greek successor programme – Eurogroup
The Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers has welcomed the agreement reached with the Greek government on a policy package that constitutes the basis for the successor programme.
The group also welcomed the approval of the policy package by the Greek parliament, the identification of additional structural expenditure reductions of €325m to close the fiscal gap in 2012 and the provision of assurances by the leaders of the two Greek coalition parties regarding the implementation of the programme beyond the forthcoming general elections.
The new programme provides a comprehensive blueprint to get Greece back on its economic feet, while ensuring debt sustainability is kept and competiveness is restored.
Greece must achieve the ambitious but realistic fiscal consolidation targets so as to return to a primary surplus as from 2013, carry out fully the privatisation plans and implement the bold structural reform agenda, in both the labour market and product and service markets, in order to promote competitiveness, employment and sustainable growth.
The Eurogroup has urged the European Commission to significantly strengthen its Task Force for Greece, in particular through an enhanced and permanent presence on the ground in Greece, in order to bolster its capacity to provide and coordinate technical assistance. Euro area Member States stand ready to provide experts to be integrated into the Task Force.
Greece also intends to put in place a mechanism that allows better tracing and monitoring of the official borrowing and internally generated funds destined to service Greece’s debt by, under monitoring by the Troika, paying an amount corresponding to the coming quarter’s debt service directly to a segregated account of Greece’s paying agent. The Greek government is also to introduce into the Greek legal framework, within the next two months, a provision that will ensure that priority is granted to debt servicing payments.
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