Away from the limelight and the media, Greek Alternate Foreign Minister for International Economic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos and Greek State Minister Nikos Pappas attempted to bridge the gap between Greece and its creditors, and pave the way for the country to submit the additional proposals required to complete the fifth assessment of the second Greek bailout program. However, the official statement issued by the European Commission was not as optimistic. It suggested that the Greek delegates would prefer to make an agreement with the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB), without the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in order to save the money meant for the next installment. However, the European Commission and particularly French Commissioner Pierre Moscovici publicly reminded Greece that this is not possible. Meanwhile, a Greek non paper regarding the 2016 fiscal adjustment was published, just before the Wall Street Journal’s suggestion that Greece should use the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund’s 11 billion euros to finance the country until March 2016 – when the IMF program will end. This solution is beneficial for every party involved. The Europeans will not be forced to put new money on the table, the IMF will have secured funding until the end of the program, while the Greek government will be able to present this timeframe as a bridge period and not another bailout program. However, this solution will significantly hurt Greek citizens, who will have to take on the expensive IMF loans. Furthermore, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble noted that Greece needs 46 billion euros in order to be saved. However, in order to receive the money, the country would have to enter another bailout program and the Greek government would have to adopt new measures that reflect the severity of the situation.
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