Eurozone delays decision on Greek loan
An extraordinary meeting of eurozone finance ministers that was due to take place on October 13 to decide whether Greece should receive its next emergency loan tranche has been postponed.
Eurogroup chief and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced the delay following a meeting of eurozone finance ministers that ended in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Juncker said that the final decision on Greece?s 8-billion-euro instalment has been postponed because the troika’s assessment will not be ready by October 13. He did not suggest an alternative date for the meeting but insisted that Greece would not default and that there had been no discussion of this option.
Athens had warned last month that it will start running out of money in mid-October if it does not receive its next slice of funding and that could lead to payments to civil servants and pensioners being affected.
However, Belgium Finance Minister Didier Reynders suggested that Athens could wait a little longer for the liquidity it needs.
“Greece told us that the funds will have to be made available during the second week of November,? he told reporters. ?We reviewed the Greek plan and we will now wait for the final report from the troika since we have time to decide.”
Monday?s Eurogroup meeting did result in an agreement on a collateral deal for Finland, which had demanded extra financial guarantees in order to maintain its role in the rescue package for Greece.
Klaus Regling, the chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), said that a ?complicated financial structure? had been created in order to satisfy Finnish demands. He added that other countries could participate but he did not expect any more takers.
