Greece is facing a serious liquidity problem since the European Central Bank refuses to include the country in the quantitative easing program or buy more treasury bills. Now Athens is looking at Mondays’ Eurogroup for a breath of air. Greek officials believe the decision of ECB President, Mario Draghi, was made to increase pressure on Athens ahead of the meeting of finance ministers. Greece’s international lenders insist that the government needs to implement the reforms required by the bailout program and pass the final review. Greece’s failure to comply so far was Draghi’s line when he announced his decision to exclude Greece from the much-needed QE scheme, which will distribute 60 billion euros per month to EU countries in exchange of junk state bonds. The ECB president referred Athens to the Eurogroup for a solution. Sources from Brussels say that Greece’s Draghi Most European finance ministers do not seem willing to accept all of Greece’s proposals. When Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis appears in Brussels on Monday he must have proposals with a price tag attached to them. Sources from Brussels say that euro zone finance ministers are disgruntled with Greece’s procrastination and Varoufakis. The claim that the Greek finance minister’s statements in Brussels are the complete opposite of what he says when he addresses Greek people in Athens. European officials also criticize Varoufakis for going to the meetings unprepared, and as a result, his counterparts find it difficult to take him seriously. They say that it is not enough to give a verbal proposal, but the Greek finance minister must follow necessary technicalities and make the appropriate prior actions. There are issues that the two sides seem to disagree on. Creditors say Greece must continue on the existing 240-billion-euro bailout program. Spending on the struggle to tackle the “humanitarian crisis” has got a chilly reception from Draghi. Athens would like to borrow more in treasury bills. Varoufakis claims the ECB owes Greece 1.9 billion euros in profits from state bonds and wants to use that for a payment due to the International Monetary Fund by the end of March. Draghi says the profits have been redistributed to euro zone central banks. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and a financial team have a series of meetings with top European officials next week in order to ask for their help in opening the liquidity taps for Greece and sign a debt agreement. They will meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria. Meanwhile, the Greek premier is having telephone conversations with European leaders.
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