Eurogroup has one target & warns Greece “No time to waste with the Reforms”

Times are tough. There is no doubt about it. As times are doubtless tough, individuals, groups, states, countries and institutions need a target to help them cope with and through the crisis. But the targets set by individual and groups and institutions can be very different from each other. My father’s target, for example, is to get his pension on time, while my niece’s fix is to get a job. Ex PM Tsipras’ target is to win the elections again, while EC President Jean-Claude Juncker’s target is to have EU members accept the percentages of  Syrian war refugees. On their part, they have one target and this is to leave debt-ridden Greece and move to another country like Germany.

Apart from different content, targets have also different time spans in which they could be potentially reached. Tsirpas could reach his target by next Sunday and my father by the end of the month. While my niece could need yet 2-3 years to reach her target, EC Juncker may need much, much longer. He may even never be able to reach his target. As for the refugees’… well… they could reach their target sooner or rather later. By writing about all these targets set by different individuals and groups, I realize that I missed my very short-term target which was to tell you about the target of the Eurogroup.

The target of the Eurogroup is one and only: Reforms in Greece.

But as every little grey Greek cat knows, Reforms in Greece means nothing else than implementation of the austerity cuts as agreed in July and August.

Nevertheless, the Eurogroup sent a message to Athens last Saturday. To whom the Eurogroup sent the message I did not quite understand, as it was interim Finance Minister Giorgos Houliarakis who attended the meeting last Saturday. OK, Houliarakis is form SYRIZA, but …

Anyway, according to Kathimerini, Houliarakis returned from Saturday’s Eurogroup meeting with a message for Greece that the already limited time should not be wasted and that the reforms the country has to implement in the coming months are many.

The Greek minister assured the council of eurozone finance ministers that work concerning the implementation of the new bailout program as far as non-legislative procedures are concerned is continuing so as to lose as little time as possible.

Still, there are “many steps” Greece has to take by mid-October, according to Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. He cited the reforms to the social security system, the independence of the revenues department and the drafting of the 2016 budget among next month’s tasks.

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem and European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure were clear that there could only be some minor changes to the bailout agreement regarding the points that have not yet been agreed on, such as the labor issue. Dijsselbloem said, “It is clear at this moment that the majority of Greeks support parties that have voted in favor of the bailout,” thereby sending a message to Athens that the implementation of the agreement is a given.

The Eurogroup stressed the significance of completing the first assessment within October so that the next installment is disbursed in November as scheduled. European Stability Mechanism (ESM) head Klaus Regling stressed that the rating agencies may have responded positively to the agreement in August, “but with the first problems this good news could easily be reversed.”

Dijsselbloem, Moscovici, Coeure, Regling, they all had something to say at the Eurgoroup meeting about what the next Greek government should do.

Of course, they all had something to say as they have a common target: Reforms in Greece – amid elections, political instability, capital controls, refugees crisis, and nobody-there-to listen-attitude.

PS JJJesus!