Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijselbloem agreed on the sideline of the EU Leaders Summit in Brussels, that a team of Greek technocrats will cooperate with representatives of the EuroWorking Group until Monday to prepare the Eurogroup meeting of 16 February.
According to newspaper To Vima, Tsipras and Dijsselbloem
“agreed to ask the institutions (European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund) to begin discussions with the Greek authorities to try to done preparatory work “ahead of the Eurogroup Monday.”
Aim of the cooperation on technical level is “a common ground” between the current bailout program and the Greek government proposals.
The agreement was announced by Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Twitter:
PM Tsipras and PEG Dijsselbloem agreed today to ask the institutions to engage with the Greek authorities to start work on a technical (1/2)
— Jeroen Dijsselbloem (@J_Dijsselbloem) February 12, 2015
assessment of the common ground between the current program and the Greek government's plans in order to facilitate 16/2 EG discussions(2/2)
— Jeroen Dijsselbloem (@J_Dijsselbloem) February 12, 2015
The Greek technical team will stay in Brussels over the weekend where the two sides will work out the details. The talks start tomorrow, Friday.
“It is a positive step,” the Greek government commented, adding “The transition from the loan agreement to the new Greek program is now the object of negotiations as well as of the next Eurogroup. Greece has clear positions, it defends them and persuade the others. It does not blackmail and does not get blackmailed,”
The news has been hailed by the Greek media with titles like “Greece – Eurogroup agreed on a ‘bridge program’,” and “A sudden turn for a bridge – program after Wednesday’s impasse”.
Some also note that the International Monetary Fund “will exit the program.”
So now he is speaking with Troika… And seriously speaking, it is the highest time to blink. The risk for Greece is too big – money could end soon. For exotic options like China or Russia there is probably too little time.
I hope for a compromise that is good for Greece.
Actually, they didn’t agree on anything important, and Dijselbloem made no secret of the talks having been rather disappointing. The “technocrat roundtable” mentioned is just an alibi to make it look as if anything will be done over the weekend. But this isn’t a technical problem, so the bureaucrats can’t solve it. The disagreements are political ones, about the reform efforts and about the reliability of Greek promises in general, and only the meeting of the political leaders on monday can find some compromise on that. If you want Greece to stay in the Euro, do pray that Tsipras comes up with something more solid than just lofty ideas then!