Commission to propose ending enhanced surveillance for Greece

The European Commission on Thursday will propose ending the bloc’s enhanced surveillance for Greece, EU Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said, arriving at the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg.

Since exiting the bailouts in 2018, the Greek economy and policy have been monitored under the eurozone’s enhanced surveillance framework while Athens has relied solely on the markets for its financing needs.

“We will have also a very important step today. The European Commission will propose to terminate the enhanced surveillance period for Greece. For Greece, getting out of this process is so important,” he told journalists.

The Eurogroup will also look at macroeconomic developments in the Eurozone.

“Our economies are navigating troubled waters. This doesn’t mean in our view that a recession is inevitable, but of course this means that we have to concentrate our fiscal policies in reforms, in investments, in a prudent policy, especially for countries with a high level of debt,” he said.

“In this framework, the interplay between monetary policy and fiscal policy is very important so we will start our meeting hearing from [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde, the decisions that were taken by the ECB, the process of this decision and the importance of this interplay.”