Greece ‘turning a page’ as it exits enhanced surveillance programme

Greece will probably be “turning a web page in its fashionable historical past” because the European Fee confirmed on Wednesday that the nation will exit its enhanced surveillance programme this month.

It comes 12 years after requiring a global bailout.

Greece acquired greater than €260 billion from the European Union and the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) between 2010 and 2015 to forestall the full collapse of the nation’s economic system and the chance of contagion to different eurozone international locations.

However this cash got here with strings hooked up and Athens was required to undertake massive financial reforms.

It formally ended its third bailout settlement with the EU in 2018 and entered into the improved surveillance framework so EU authorities might proceed to watch reform progress.

In a letter to the Greek authorities dated 2 August however launched on Wednesday, Commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis and Paolo Gentiloni mentioned that Greece has delivered “on the majority of the coverage commitments” made because it exited its bailout and “achieved efficient reform implementation, even underneath the difficult circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic and, extra not too long ago, by Russia’s army aggression towards Ukraine.”

“Because of this, the resilience of the Greek economic system has considerably improved and the dangers of spill-over results on different euro space Member States have decreased considerably. Therefore sustaining Greece underneath enhanced surveillance is not justified,” they added

Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras took to Twitter to say that 20 August would mark “the achievement of a serious nationwide purpose” and praised “the sacrifices of the Greek individuals” in addition to the federal government’s “prudent financial and reform-oriented coverage”.

In his reply to Dombrovskis and Gentiloni, Staikouras mentioned that the reforms carried out over the previous three years in areas together with fiscal and fiscal-structural insurance policies, social welfare, monetary stability, labour and product markets, privatizations, and public administration have “put in place a strong platform for Greece to realize sustainable and inclusive long-term progress.”

Regardless of the “world shocks of extraordinary nature”, these reforms, he went on, have allowed the nation to return “to a standard monetary scenario, thereby turning a web page in its fashionable historical past.”

“We’re decided to proceed alongside this path for the good thing about all our residents and future generations, in addition to the soundness and prosperity of our union,” he added.