As everything is coming together in the field of negotiations with the country’s lenders in order to conclude the third program review and then the fourth and last, with the ultimate goal of debt relief and settlement, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has a great chance to … wear a tie, to do what he was joking about –albeit very seriously – that if the Greek debt was settled, then he would change his own attire … The question probably will be how tightly it will be tied around the neck of the Prime Minister.
All the political and economic interest will revolve around the conditions accompanying the regulation of the Greek debt, as the lenders of the country are not willing to give anything without receiving binding guarantees from the Greek side….
This article follows the clear statements of the outgoing head of EuroWorkingGroup (EWG) in a Sunday Greek newspaper. Mr Thomas Wieser, stated that if there is a debt relief agreement on the horizon, then it will be accompanied by measures the Greek side will undertake. Essentially, Mr Wieser destroyed in a one single sentence the government’s narrative about a clear exit from the Memoranda and trusteeship … He is, of course, the outgoing head, but the EuroWorkingGroup, which he was leading, is the technocratic institution, which provides its own findings during every negotiation.
And while Mr Tsipras almost always played betted on political negotiation at the highest level, the Brussels technocrats usually won all the time … Mrs. Merkel always demanded that a technical agreement precedes everything else.
But we cannot fail to identify the very positive aspect, recognised by New Democracy too; the fact that the Greek debt regulation is already on the table. According to information, last Thursday’s EuroWorkingGroup, the first talks on the country’s post-memoranda course have already taken place, as a prerequisite once for the decision to regulate the Greek.
At the same time, New Democracy is closely monitoring any developments in the matter of negotiations. Having a 10 pct lead at the polls on SYRIZA, New Democracy knows that finishing first will bring the “hot potato” of measures stipulated in the MoU for the pensions and the tax-free limit, set to enter into force after the infamous exit from the memoranda on August 2018. And then there’s the regulation of the Greek debt with new terms…