“It is the result of many years of effort and determination and deserves recognition,” the official said ahead of the June 16 Eurogroup.
“Greece is completing its journey to normalcy,” a European official told a news conference in Brussels today. Eurogroup of 16 June to be held at Luxembourg.
“Greece has come an incredibly long way lately 12 years and is now on a sustainable course. “This is the result of many years of effort and determination and it is worth acknowledging,” he said European official He added: “The end of enhanced supervision will be another milestone for Greece to complete its path to European normalcy.”
The same official said that towards the end of the summer, the Commission is expected to say that there is no reason to extend the status of enhanced supervision for Greece and to announce the end of the process in August.
“This is an important moment, although the end of enhanced surveillance does not mean that the work is completely completed“, The official noted, saying that the Greek authorities have pledged to continue to pursue a stable and prudent fiscal policy, to continue the reform efforts, while also committing to implement the remaining outstanding issues in the second half of the year. The same official explained that Greece ‘s political commitments will be monitored in the context of regular post – program monitoring and in the context of the European Semester. He also added that there is a whole surveillance machine around the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience plans, which also applies to Greece.
The 14th report of enhanced supervision of Greece is among the topics on the Eurogroup agenda and, as the European official pointed out, the report is positive, despite the difficult conditions, due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the impact on energy prices. According to the Commission, the report could be the basis for the Eurogroup to give the green light for the disbursement of 748 million euros to Greece – an amount that concerns the implementation of Greek debt relief measures.
Regarding the final installment of the debt measures, the European official said that it will be evaluated in the context of the first post-program report in November. “I expect the Eurogroup to be very supportive of the disbursement of the installments related to the debt relief measures and the normal supervision of Greece”, he added and noted that this will be reflected in a statement of the Eurogroup.
Finally, the Eurogroup will discuss banking union and preparation of the June Summit. Post-program supervision reports for Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland and Spain will also be discussed, as well as the convergence report on the introduction of the euro from Croatia. The ECB will brief the eurozone finance ministers on the latest decisions of the Governing Council.
