Pierre Gramegna

The Bulgarian Ministry of Finance anticipates that the country will achieve the inflation benchmark required for Eurozone membership by the year's end. Following this achievement, Bulgaria plans to formally request the European Commission (EC) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to prepare an extraordinary convergence report, as stated by the Ministry of Finance.

Greece needs to follow prudent fiscal policy and continue reforms in order to ensure the confidence of the markets, Pierre Gramegna, the new executive director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), pointed out on Thursday following his meeting in Athens with Finance Minister Christos Staikouras.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras has presented the six priorities of the Greek economy amid a turbulent geopolitical landscape, persistent high inflation and tighter monetary policy.

The new head of the European Stability Mechanism, Pierre Gramegna, announced on Monday he will visit Greece in the next couple of weeks.

The prospects of the European economy were discussed by the participants in the panel "European Economy", coordinated by Tassos Anastasatos, Chief Economist of Eurobank and held at the 6th Delphi Economic Forum held under the auspices of of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

Greece's exit from a bailout program instituted by the euro zone and International Monetary Fund looks set to proceed in August, Luxembourg finance minister Pierre Gramegna said on Friday. 

The finance ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro are deciding who should lead their regular meetings, with Portugal's Mario Centeno widely tipped to take the helm of a group that has led the currency bloc's crisis-fighting efforts.

Finance ministers from Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovakia bid on Thursday to replace Jeroen Dijsselbloem as the head of the eurozone finance ministers, the Eurogroup, before a vote next week among the 19 countries sharing the euro.

A European Union plan to raise more tax from digital multinationals faced the first signs of scepticism on Saturday, as smaller members of the bloc warned about the economic impact from such a move.

France wants to tax companies like Google and Facebook on their turnover, rather than profits, to increase revenue from global online groups, accused of paying too little in Europe.

Eurozone ministers have agreed to unlock the latest tranche of Greece's bailout, ending months of uncertainty about whether Athens could meet large bond payments due in July.

The international creditors said the bailout fund will disburse €8.5 billion (US$9.5 billion) to Greece and that the payment still has to be parliamentary approved in some countries.