Fourth tranche of aid to Greece should be decided Monday, says France
Eurozone finance ministers should decide on Monday to disburse the fourth tranche of aid to Greece, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
“We should decide today the payment of the fourth tranche of aid to Greece, given the reforms that the Greek government accomplished over several months,” Le Maire was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
Greece may not get the fourth tranche until mid-March, according to Bloomberg, as Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos arrived in Brussels for Monday's Eurogroup meeting with all but two of 110 prior actions complete.
According to a compliance report seen by Kathimerini, Greek authorities have enforced 108 structural and economic reforms from a list of 110.
Nevertheless, as two of the actions are missing, it is expected that EU officials will not sign off on the next slice of aid, worth 5.7 billion euros, at the summit.
The two pending actions are related to electronic foreclosures, which Greece's creditors are pushing particularly hard for in a bid to reduce the large proportion of non-performing loans that are weighing down Greek banks.
Bloomberg reported an EU official as saying that the new loans may not be made available until mid-March, partly due to the scheduling constraints of a German parliamentary committee that has to green light the disbursement. [Combined reports]
