--Greece money was held over from EUR5 billion May loan
--Expect troika mission chiefs to be in Athens on Monday
--IMF's Lagarde says no question of Greek bailout program "renegotiation"
--EU Rehn says no concerns that Greece run out of cash in short-term
LUXEMBOURG--Greece will receive the final EUR1 billion ($1.26 billion)
from its first disbursement under the second bailout package by
month's end, Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of
euro-zone finance ministers said Thursday.
The money was held back by euro-zone governments from a EUR5-billion
payment last month because of concerns about the outcome of the June
17 Greek election.
Mr. Juncker said part of the money would cover Greece's contribution
to the region's bailout funds.
The Eurogroup chief said finance ministers expect the new Greek
government to invite senior officials from the troika of official
lenders to Athens next Monday to "take stock of the implementation" of
the second Greek bailout program.
He said that, on the basis of this visit, a full troika team will then
go to Athens to discuss with Greek authorities "an updated" memorandum
of understanding of the bailout program.
The troika of official lenders is made up of the International
Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
Mr. Juncker said the swift visit to Greece by senior troika officials
was required because tackling the Greek situation needs to be "speeded
up."
We are "in an urgent situation," Mr. Juncker said at a press
conference after the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who
was with Mr. Juncker at the press conference, said there was no
question of "any renegotiation" of Greece's second bailout package.
She said that since a troika mission hadn't been in Athens since
March, there will be important "fact-finding" work for them to do.
"Clearly the election period has been on the soft side" in terms of
program implementation.
However, she said there was no reason to believe the fact-finding and
assessment part of the troika mission would take long.
Asked whether Greece will continue to receive financial assistance
from its bailout program while the troika mission was on the ground,
European economics Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters "there should
be no problem in this regard in the short term."
Mr. Rehn also welcomed the rapid formation of a Greek coalition
government while Mr. Juncker said the euro-zone finance ministers
listened carefully to the interim Greek finance minister's assurances
on Greece's fiscal plans and pledges to meet its program commitments.
Earlier Thursday, Greece's euro-zone partners struck a largely
uncompromising tone on the new Greek program, saying the country
should first make progress on its long-delayed economic reforms before
they would consider giving the country more leeway to meet the
stringent terms of its rescue.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager insisted Greece must push
through with the "painful" overhauls, after which he hinted there
might be some, albeit very limited, scope to change from the
conditions of its EUR173-billion rescue package.
"There is no alternative but for them to carry out major reforms as
quickly as possible and there can be no talk of softening [the terms
of the bailout agreement]," Mr. De Jager said ahead of a meeting of
euro-zone finance ministers. "If there are certain things they can't
do, we might be able to discuss it." But he made clear any "smart"
changes to the program could come only "after there are improvements."
Greece's new coalition government has said it will demand more time to
achieve major public-spending cuts, and it is hoping that the
anti-austerity, pro-growth mood in Paris and Rome will help it win
concessions from the 16 other members of the single currency. But a
move by the newly-appointed cabinet Thursday not to proceed with
planned public-sector layoffs was set to play into fear that the
country would not push ahead with key demands of the European Union,
European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Coalition parties said they had delayed the reforms to give new Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras more time to renogotiate the bailout terms.
-Matina Stevis contributed to this article
-Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@dowjones.com and Vanessa
Mock at vanessa.mock@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 21, 2012 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
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