Greece scrambles to send draft reforms to EU institutions

by Peter Spiegel & Kerin Hope

Financial Times
February 22, 2015

The Greek government scrambled to come up with economic reform proposals to satisfy the country’s international creditors, even as cracks began to emerge in the ruling Syriza party over last Friday’s last-minute deal to extend Athens’ bailout by another four months.

A draft of the reform measures was submitted ahead of a formal evaluation on Monday by bailout monitors that will determine whether a tentative agreement to extend the €172bn rescue until June can proceed.

Monday’s evaluation by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — previously known as the troika — was one of the most important conditions attached to Friday’s eleventh-hour deal, which officials believe averted a Greek bank run and sovereign bankruptcy.

If the EU and IMF do not approve of the Greek measures as “sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point” for completing the current bailout, eurozone officials have agreed that another Brussels meeting of finance ministers will be needed on Tuesday. Without approval, Greece’s EU bailout will expire on Saturday.

Athens is expected to send a more detailed submission on Monday, but there were already concerns the plan from Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, could run into resistance.

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