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Mission chiefs of Greece's European Union and International
Monetary Fund lenders left Athens for consultations in Brussels,
adjourning their bailout review for one day, a Greek government
official said, but the European Commission stressed these were
not emergency talks and said things were still going well.
"The mission chiefs are in Brussels today to attend the
Eurogroup Working Group discussion on Greece, as has long been
foreseen," Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told a regular
briefing in Brussels. "We are making progress."
The mission chiefs are due to return to Athens as soon as the
working-group meeting ends, another EU official said.
Technical teams of the lenders remained in Athens, a Greek the
official said. A meeting of the mission chiefs would go ahead as
scheduled with Greece's labour minister on Saturday after their
return.
"They will be back," the official told Reuters.
The review has dragged on for months mainly due to a rift among
the lenders over Greece's fiscal shortfall by 2018, initially
seen at 3 percent by the EU, 1 percent by Athens and 4.5 percent
by the IMF.
Representatives of the lenders started new consultations in
Athens this week aimed at signing off on Greece's progress in
adopting terms of a multi-billion euro bailout.
If concluded, the review will pave the way for talks on debt
relief with the EU and potentially unlock additional funds from
the bailout, which is worth up to 86 billion euros ($98 billion)
in total spread out over three years.
Athens needs the money to repay 3.5 billion euros to the IMF and
the European Central Bank in July, as well as for unpaid
domestic bills.
One EU official close to the talks said the idea was to reach a
deal by Sunday, but a first step was for the IMF and the EU to
agree on deficit levels and other targets that Greece must meet.
"The Greeks are still short of meeting the conditions of either
organisation," the EU official said.
($1 = 0.8798 euros)
(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor, Robin Emmott and Francesco
Guarascio in Brussels and Renee Maltezou in Athens' Editing by
Ruth Pitchford)
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