Pressure increases on Greece on reform plan

Suzanne Lynch in Brussels

Greece has been urged to "stop wasting time" and start implementing reform measures as euro zone finance ministers gather in Brussels this afternoon for talks on the latest reform proposals presented by Greece.

Arriving in Brussels for the first of two days of meetings, euro group president Jeroen Dijsselbloem struck a tough tone on Greece which last week submitted a second list of reform measures to be considered by international lenders.

“Little has been done since the last Eurogroup in terms of talks, in terms of implementation,” he said. “We have to stop wasting time and really start talks seriously,” he said, adding that euro zone partners were ready to support Greece if it continued on the economic reform path.

Speaking on his way into this afternoon's meeting, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said that Greece needed to "implement a portion of its commitments" and called on the Greek government to move to the next level of discussion. "It's time now to move it on to a technical level between the institutions and the Greek authorities. It's not the jobs of ministers to work with the detail of individual proposals."

His comments were echoed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble who said that Greece must work with the institutions. "The Greeks must implement now what they promised to do and must especially refrain from taking one-sided measures," he said.

There is growing frustration among EU officials at the lack of substantial progress made by Greece since euro zone finance ministers agreed to a four-month extension of its bailout just over two weeks ago. On Thursday, the Greek government submitted an eight-page list of proposals, including a suggestion that tourists are employed as undercover tax collectors, to euro group president Jeroen Dijsselbloem. The list received a luke-warm response from international lenders. It follows a broader list of reform measures submitted by Athens just over two weeks ago.

Speaking today, Minister Noonan said that the second list was “a prioritisation” of the proposals set out in the original letter, and not an alternative. “It wasn’t meant to drop any proposals; both sets are on the table,” he said.

Greece, which faces a number of debt repayments to the IMF this month, is seeking to unlock over € 7 billion of funds due to it under its current bailout programme.

The Greek government signalled its intention over the weekend to hold a referendum should its reform proposals be rejected by international lenders. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis ratcheted up the pressure on Greece's lenders to accept Athens' latest reform proposals, telling Italy's Il Corriere della Sera that Greece may call new elections or hold a referendum if European finance ministers reject the government's reform proposals.

However, he said that citizens would be asked to vote on the country’s economic policy - not EU membership - in any referendum.

Greece's banks are continuing to rely on emergency funding - known as emergency liquidity assistance (ela) - from the European Central Bank, which has increased the ceiling of ela that is permitted to be provided to Greek banks. The ECB is also resisting requests by the government of Alexis Tsipras to be permitted to issue more short-term debt, or T-bills, to finance itself in the short-term. As European markets rallied today as the ECB launched its much-awaited quantitative easing programme, Greek markets fell, with the main Greek index losing 3.7 per cent, heading for its lowest level in about three weeks. Greek three-year bond yields were also higher.