Dijsselbloem: Troika to return to Athens next week

Eurozone President Jeroen Dijsselbloem has issued a written statement following the informal mini-Eurozone meeting in Brussels, late Friday. “Today the Greek minister of Finance, the institutions (European Commission, ECB, ESM and IMF) and I had a constructive meeting on the state of play of the second review. There is a clear understanding that a timely finalisation of the second review is in everybody’s interest. We made substantial progress today and are close to common ground for the mission to return to Athens the coming week. We will take stock of the further progress of the second review during the next Eurogroup.”

According to sources, Greece’s creditors are expected to return to Athens and resume talks next week.

The informal mini-EuroGroup meeting in Brussels, Friday, has ended. Statements are expected by the participants shortly. Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and his Deputy Giorgos Chouliarakis met with Eurozone President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, ECB member Benoit Coeure, Poul Thomsen from the IMF, Thomas Wieser President of the EuroWorking Group, CEO of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Klaus Regling, Velia Velkulescu of the IMF and Marco Butti from the EC.

According to Reuters, Greece’s creditors were expected to demand immediate measures worth 1% of GDP (1.8 billion euros) and a further 1% after 2018.