Griekenland wil duidelijkheid over finacieel reddingsplan (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Greek authorities have requested a meeting with officials from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, in a move which suggests a formal request for aid is imminent.
Athens insisted however that the letter sent by Greek finance minister George Papaconstantinou on Thursday (15 April) does not amount to a formal request for aid in itself, with EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn later in the day saying the talks could take place next Monday in Athens.
Greek diplomats in Brussels suggest the meeting's purpose is to solve a number of outstanding issues regarding the lending terms, in order to avoid any hiccups once a formal application to draw on the recently brokered EU/IMF funding package goes through.
"In order to be ready we have to do certain things," one official told this website on condition of anonymity. "Because the institutions are different, there are different procedures that need to be followed." A commission official confirmed that the talks would be of a "technical nature."
Experts agreed. "The gap between making a request and a response should be very short. Otherwise its open to speculation," a financial analyst with ING, Carsten Brzeski, told EUobserver.
"In my opinion, they will sit down and try to agree on a first draft of a Memorandum of Understanding on what the euro area and the IMF will ask Greece to do," he said, adding that disclosure of a three-year lending figure would be an important factor in calming the markets.
Last Sunday euro area finance ministers agreed to provide Greece with up to €30 billion in loans this year, with a further €15 billion coming from the IMF. No figures for 2011 and 2012 have been made public however, although one Germany daily reported that three-year euro area loans could total €90 billion.
Last resort? Member state legal challenges
As well as uncertainty over the EU/IMF lending terms, some doubts still exist on the conditions under which Greece could successfully apply for the loans.
At a European Summit in Brussels last month, EU leaders hammered out a deal to funnel aid to Greece if needed, but only if "market financing is insufficient."
"Any disbursement on the bilateral loans would be decided by the euro area member states by unanimity, subject to strong conditionality and based on an assessment by the European Commission and the European Central Bank," reads the 25 March declaration.
The definition of "insufficient" market financing remains unclear, with Greece on Tuesday drawing strong demand for a €1.56 billion issuance of short-term treasury bills, albeit by offering an expensive return of more than four percent.
Sunday's euro area statement outlining the size of the loans did not make any reference to the stipulation, suggesting the request may have been dropped.
Meanwhile legal obstacles to a quick transfer of funds appear to be mounting in a number of member states, not least Europe's largest economy, Germany, with the country's press reporting that a prominent economist is planning a legal challenge against the rescue package in the Federal Constitutional Court.
Joachim Starbatty, a professor at Tubingen University, was quoted by the Rheinische Post daily as saying the aid package breached the European Union's Maastricht Treaty. "We will file a suit at the Constitutional Court against the credit from euro states," he said.