Gov't must cooperate with technocrats

 Time is not on Greece?s side as the threat of a credit crunch looms and real economy conditions worsen

By Dimitris Kontogiannis

The agreement reached at a mini EU summit with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other high-level EU officials, could mark the beginning of a more constructive engagement between the government and official lenders. This should become obvious in the next 10 days or so because failure to do so may bring about unpleasant consequences, including a credit crunch. Greece bought some time at the recent meeting but the clock is ticking.

The government has to present a full list of structural reforms to the lenders in the next few days, something that could have been done in previous weeks. The reforms will be evaluated and hopefully approved by the Eurogroup so that a portion of the 7.2 billion euros earmarked for Greece under the second adjustment program can be disbursed. Government officials are hopeful of smoother cooperation with the technocrats of the so-called Brussels Group, comprised of senior officials from the European Commission, the IMF, the ECB and the ESM (European Stability Fund), who are on a fact-finding mission in Athens.

However, third-party observers who are aware of the review process and the fundamental weaknesses of the Greek civil service are not that optimistic. Although communication between the two sides may be restored, helping reduce the frustration of the technical teams of the Brussels Group, the speed with which ministry officials and others can respond to queries about data remain a big question mark. Unless the Greek side has done some homework and is ready to deliver the figures requested, the observers say they would be surprised by a response in such a short period of time. If...