Troika postpones visit to Athens, says state TV
The health problems of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and new Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos this weekend are changing the government?s timetable and postponing the visit of the representatives of Greece?s creditors by a week, according to state-run TV.
The hospitalization of the two very people the inspectors of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund ? collectively known as the troika ? wished to meet, means that the latter had to put off their visit that was originally planned for Monday.
State television channel NET reported on Saturday that the troika will now arrive early next month, which is after the European Union summit scheduled for June 28-29 in Brussels.
This will of course postpone further the disbursement of the next loan tranche for Athens, that was due for June and amounts to 5 billion euros.
Given that Samaras and Rapanos will stay in hospital until Monday – the former in order to recover after an eye surgery and the latter for tests to establish the reasons of his fainting on Friday ? it remains unclear whether Samaras will be able to travel to Brussels for the summit and when Rapanos will swear in as Finance Minister.
