Parliamentary Grand Committee to consider Greek debt situation
Parliament’s Grand Committee will meet in a special session Monday evening to discuss efforts by Greece to present a credible reform plan to EU leaders before it can receive another drawdown on bailout funds. The government must get a green light from the Grand Committee before it can agree to extend more money to rescue the ailing Greek economy.
The meeting of Grand Committee MPs Monday will follow close on the heels of discussions by eurozone finance ministers and EU prime ministers. The latter gathered in Brussels Monday afternoon to try and find a last-minute resolution to the ongoing stand-off between Greece and its creditors as it tries to identify reforms that would tip the EU’s hand and allow it to draw down much-needed bailout funds.
Meanwhile in Helsinki the new government needs a go-ahead from the Parliamentary Grand Committee before it can vote in favour of freeing up additional funding for Greece. Even after that, the full complement of MPs must vote on the issue, although Juha Sipilä’s government enjoys a majority in the parliament.
Greece’s left-leaning government met on Sunday to review its latest raft of reform proposals. Greek premier Alexis Tsipras has so far outlined the new plans to the leaders of EU heavy-hitters France and Germany, as well as to the president of the EU Commission.
In the wee hours of Monday morning EU Commission spokespersons tweeted that Brussels had received the Greek loan programme proposal. Tsipras was due to go through the suggestion with representatives of the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank ahead of meetings by eurozone finance ministers Monday.
Although initial smoke signals from Brussels looked favourable, commentators stressed that no concrete decisions about a loan drawdown could be made before the proposals were in black and white.
If Greece doesn’t get the 7.2 billion-euro loan infusion by the end of June, it won’t be able to stick to the IMF’s loan repayment schedule, which also requires repayment of a loan installment at the end of the month.
Stubb: No decisions Monday, more meetings likely
Meanwhile Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb was among the participants in Eurogroup meetings in Brussels Monday. Shortly before the discussions began, he told reporters that he doubted that any concrete decisions would be made.
“No hard proposals are on the table. I imagine that the process will continue for many days,” Stubb said as he arrived.
The minister said he had seen some of the documents tabled and added that some of them dealt with reforms to corporate taxes, but he said that the structural reforms didn’t go far enough.
“The expectations have been set too high, and I don’t think we will see anything today,” he noted.
Latest reports from Brussels also suggest that there had been some confusion with respect to the documents provided by Greek officials, with Eurozone ministers receiving several different versions of the reform proposals.
“The first proposal went out at 1.00 am. The next came at 7.00 o’clock with a note that the first was erroneous. And now the Eurogroup has one on the table,” Stubb explained.
Later on Monday evening it will be the turn of heads of government to discuss the Greek situation. However the financial institutions will first agree on any adjustments to the country’s debt programme, after which officials and the Eurogroup will weigh in.
Finance Minister Stubb said it is likely that there will be additional meetings over the next few days. Following the gathering of eurozone finance ministers however, he said that there had been some progress. However he would not divulge any further information on the progress of the talks.
AI
