Greece has submitted an official request to the International Monetary Fund for a new loan as it seeks a huge third bailout from its creditors, the finance ministry said.
“We would like to inform you that we are seeking a new loan facility from the International Monetary Fund,” Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos wrote in a letter to Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF.
Late on Friday, the IMF confirmed it had received Greece’s request for a new IMF loan and said it would work to arrange talks with Greece and its European creditors.
Talks for the 3. bailout program worth up to €86bn could start in Athens on Monday. With the first talks to take place in the Athens hotel where the creditors’ representatives will settle down, the Greek government has still to solve issues about how the new Troikans will visit and inspect and do their audit work with the Greek ministries.
The new Troika (EU, ECB, IMF) is in fact a Quartet as representatives of European Financial Stability Mechanism will also join the negotiations.
The new Top Troikans are:
Cyprus-“Thomsen” Delia Velculescu (IMF)
EU mandarin Declan Costello (EC)
Portugal-bailout Rasmus Rüffer (ECB)
All together, the Quartet’s representatives, the technical teams, the sub-technical teams, the secretaries and the doormen coming to Athens is estimated to be a group of some one hundred people.
100 Troikans and Legionaries in Athens? Given the public anger about austerity policies, they would better be rather invisible, the Greek government had allegedly thought. According to Greek media, the government had originally offered the new Troika a hotel near Cape Sounion, some 60 km away from Athens. They could work in a nice environment, breath smog-free air, enjoy a swim now and then, fine dine and drink gazing at the marvelous Mediterranean night sky.
But the Troikans are brave men and women and are determined to defy any risk of being confronted with the angry average Greek. They turned down the offer and will accommodate in a hotel on Syggrou Avenue, 1-1.2 km away from the Parliament and Syntagma Square. The times where the Troikans enjoyed the luxury of Hilton Hotel are …passé.
Negotiations on the 3. bailout are expected to conclude by August 20th, when Greece has to repay the European Central Bank.
PS I suppose, we Greeks pay for the Troikans’ & Legionaries’ transport and accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks incl pre- and after dinner cocktails, as well as their laundry. I hope they pay for their spa treatment from their own pockets.
Meanwhile rumors claim that the Top Troikans are afraid of a possible sun attack.
In french we call this “tourisme diplomatique”. That’s the way it goes. Probably those who make the real work will not come to Athens. I hope that the many intelligent ladies in the Greek ministries that have to do all the written work for their talkative bosses will also get a piece from the European cake.
Oh GOOD news. Me & my cat can Iive in a Troika-free neighborhood!!! Without security poIice! As free citizens!
May the curse of the Interconti faII on Troikans everywhere….
Of course you pay for everything!(as always) Greece suffers from “Stockholm syndrome” so desperate to hold onto the Euro and Europe, the very institutions that are destroying Greece. How shameful and futile. Greece will only be free once it frees itself from these evil institutions.