Creditors not happy with deal on VAT for the islands
The governing board of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is expected to decide on Friday morning on the disbursement of the last bailout tranche to Greece, amounting to 15 billion euros. While no problems or delays are anticipated in the approval process, representatives of the country’s creditors make no secret of their displeasure about the way that the latest European Union summit decided on extending the value-added tax discount for five Aegean islands.
On the sidelines of Thursday’s Eurogroup meeting, the eurozone finance ministers will convene the ESM Executive Council to approve the supplemental memorandum of understanding with Greece, after the completion of the fourth bailout review.
They will check that the country has fulfilled the necessary prior actions before issuing their approval for the ESM to give the final nod and the disbursement to take place in the next few days.
The eurozone creditors’ grievances over the agreement between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras are not focused on the fiscal impact, as that comes to just 24 million euros, but on the way this deal was reached in the absence of the crediting authorities.
