Long day and night ahead for Eurozone ministers as they discuss Greek debt crisis
One of the key players in the latest Greek bailout talks has warned there is a long way to go to strike a deal to unlock another €11bn (£8.4bn) of loans.
The Slovakian finance minister, Peter Kazimir, said talks currently underway in Brussels between the Eurozone finance ministers could last all night, pointing to a host of unresolved issues yet to be thrashed out.
"This Eurogroup is not going to be an easy one," Kazimir tweeted. "I'm afraid we will spend the night together."
This #Eurogroup is not going to be an easy one. Many things remain unresolved. #eurozone #Greece
— Peter Kažimír (@KazimirPeter) May 24, 2016
I’m afraid we will spend the night together. #Greece #Eurogroup #eurozone #IMF
— Peter Kažimír (@KazimirPeter) May 24, 2016
The so-called Eurogroup is meeting today along with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to discuss the terms and conditions of unlocking the next stage of loans for Greece.
The latest spanner has been thrown in by the IMF which has called for "unconditional" debt relief to be granted to Greece to make the repayment schedule more manageable.
In recent weeks the Greek parliament has passed a series of controversial reforms to its tax and pensions system which it was believed would pave the way for the next deal and for substantive discussions on some form of debt relief. It also posted a €2.4bn budget surplus for the first four months of the year, ahead of expectations.
Greece: State of the nation
| GDP growth | minus 0.3 per cent |
| Unemployment rate | 24.7 per cent |
| Inflation rate | minus 0.3 per cent |
| Gross public debt | 182.8 per cent of GDP |
Source: European Commission, May 2016
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and president of the Eurogroup, said: "The Greek government has done a lot of work pushing forward reforms and difficult measures and getting them through parliament."
"An actual haircut of the loans will not happen. There is no support for that," Dijsselbloem confirmed to reporters outside the meeting in Brussels.
We believe that debt-relief talks & financial participation of International Monetary Fund can wait for later stage. #IMF #Greece #eurozone
— Peter Kažimír (@KazimirPeter) May 24, 2016
"What we can look at is the annual debt burden … we are ready to help them in the coming years to take away some of those problems."
A deal could include repayment holidays, lowering interest rates and extending the maturity of the debt. The IMF presented a proposal last week which could result in Greece paying back debt on its €300bn debt pie until 2080.