European Stability Mechanism

Klaus Regling, the managing director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) said Greece was a “special case” during a speech before the European Parliament, Wednesday. The ESM chief stressed Greece was in the middle of its 3rd fiscal adjustment program, contrasting its progress with the other countries that collaborated with the ESM which had successfully completed their programs.

The onus is on the Greek prime minister to decide whether Athens will legislate fresh measures for 2019, as the country's creditors are demanding, while the latter have formed a common front against Athens, and both the European Stability Mechanism and Berlin on Monday stressed the need for the International Monetary Fund's participation in the program.

Greek Finance Minster Euclid Tsakalotos will have a series of high-profile contacts in Brussels, ahead of Thursday’s EuroGroup meeting in an effort to improve the negative climate against Greece. Accompanied by Alternate Minister of Finance George Chouliarakis, Mr.

Greece would welcome an International Monetary Fund exit from its bailout program, saying it might help the country conclude a crucial review of its progress without adopting more austerity, a government official said on Friday.

Deputy spokesperson of the European Commission Alexander Winterstein said the role of the IMF in the Greek bailout program is provided for in the European Stability Mechanism’s (ESM) compliance charter.

The European Commission (EC) warned that the recent announcements by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras to allocate part of the GDP surplus to low income pensioners, which resulted in a heated exchange of rhetoric between the Greek side, EU officials and the IMF, would delay the second review of the fiscal adjustment program.

As representatives of the country's international creditors return to Athens Tuesday for a new round of negotiations, the director of the International Monetary Fund's European Department, Poul Thomsen, and its economic counselor and director of research, Maurice Obstfeld, have denied, in an article they co-authored, that the Washington-based organization is asking Greece for more austerity.

Greece is once again in the headlines as discussions for the second review of its European Stability Mechanism (ESM) program are gaining pace. Unfortunately, the discussions have also spurred some misinformation about the role and the views of the International Monetary Fund.

In an interview published in Germany’s Bild am Sontag today, the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble adhered to his long-held belief that structural reforms, not debt relief, would contribute to Greece achieving a serviceable debt and remaining in the Eurozone, arguing that interest rates and repayments burden its budget only negligibly.

Saturday’s three and a half hours teleconference between Greece creditors and 5 key Greek Ministers involved in negotiations -Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Economy and Development Minister Dimitris Papadimitriou, Labour Minister Efi Achtzoglou, Alternate Finance Minister Giorgos Chouliarakis, and Environment and Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis- revealed the rift between the two sides on