No agreement on Greek debt measures in sight yet

Despite Athens’s optimism for an overall agreement by June 21, eurozone officials have returned to Brussels after the International Monetary Fund’s spring meeting in Washington in full awareness that reaching a deal on easing Greece’s debt will be no cakewalk.

The Fund and the eurozone may not have gotten any closer after their meetings in the US capital, but at least they have stated their intentions regarding their time limitations as well as their red lines. This is why, after the IMF meeting, officials in Brussels are saying that any deal by Friday’s Eurogroup meeting in Sofia will be particularly difficult.

Crucially, while Germany expressed the need for associating the debt-easing measures with certain terms and conditions, the Fund insisted that the easing mechanism would have to be automatic and free from any political pressure.