EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis took a distinctly sober view of the Greek debt issue, in an interview with “Naftemporiki” this week, urging all sides to have realistic expectations, but at the same time appearing confident that an agreement can, indeed, be achieved at the upcoming Eurogroup meeting.
Dombrovskis, who holds the economic, monetary affairs and euro portfolio, emphasized that “sometimes it is about the expectation management – if we set expectations too high, it is normal that we need to align them to what is politically and technically possible.”
With speculation running rampant in the wake of the failed May 22 Eurogroup to bridge differences between the IMF and European creditors – primarily Germany – over the Greek bailout, the no-nonsense Latvian Commissioner said the framework for discussion of debt relief measures for the country still revolves around a Eurogroup statement dating to May 2016.
He cited the fact that the Greek government has already taken most of the 140 “prior actions” demanded by creditors, as of this month, and is in the process of implementing the remaining ones.
“Once it is done, the institutions will be able to table the final compliance report. Second, work will continue on the debt issues,” he told “Naftemporiki”.
Moreover, in again accentuating the positive, Dombrovskis said he detected progress in talks over fiscal targets after the current program ends in August 2018. For instance, he said the demand for an annual primary budget surplus target of 3.5 percent (of GDP) will extend to 2022, rather than the original proposal for a 10 year period, i.e. until 2027.
Finally, he sidestepped a question on what the European institutions would do in case the IMF continues to remain outside the bailout program, merely stressing that “Plan A” is still very much on the table, given that ” Greece is delivering”.
Read full interview here.
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