Greece will feature heavily on the Eurogroup agenda in the first six months of 2016 as creditors want to supervise closely the progress of the bailout program in order to avoid the costly delays of 2015.
The progress of the program will also determine the negotiation on easing the Greek debt. It is necessary to have the first evaluation completed before creditors would sit down at the negotiating table.
The meetings of the Eurozone finance ministers in the first three months will be of utmost importance because they will determine the progress Athens is making in implementing the measures and reforms necessary to get out of the economic crisis.
The first important date for the Greek economy will be January 14 when the first Eurogroup of the new year will convene. Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos should present to his Eurozone peers a detailed description of the implementation of reforms and explain how the remaining measures of the program would be implemented.
Based on this information and the input of the technical cadres of lenders, representatives of the European Commission and the European Central Bank will arrive in Athens to make the evaluation that will start officially after January 18.
Three weeks later, on February 11, Greece will be again be subject of discussion in the Eurogroup which will examine the hitherto course of the evaluation. Tsakalotos in recent statements has made the assessment that until mid-February, the assessment will be completed and the discussion on debt relief would start.
However, Greece must have passed the security fund reform bill by then. At Maximos Mansion they estimate that this would be completed by the end of January. At the same time, a clear timetable for the farmers taxation and labour law reforms must be established.
By the March 7 Eurogroup meeting, the progress evaluation would be completed and Eurozone finance ministers will discuss the disbursement of the next bailout loan tranche, estimated to be 5.7 billion euros.
Greece will remain on the Eurogroup agenda through June. It will be on the agenda of the meetings of April 22, May 24 and June 16.
